Where's the slacker? Right here, here I am!

Woah. What has it been? 22 days since I wrote? Yikes, sorry guys. Things have been pretty normal around here lately. We're keeping up with the same routine, here on the homefront and around the world on the FOB too. I'm just going to break this up into sections today. 

Jack:

He is now just over 4 months old! Crazy, isn't it? I still can't get my mind around it sometimes. He had his well check-up with Dr. Jane-Wit yesterday and recieved his immunizations as well. He weighed in at 13 pounds 15 ounces and he is 26 inches long. His weight is in the 25th percentile for his weight, and the 75th for his length. The doctor gave the okay to start spoon-feeding cereals. She followed by saying we should stick with each one we try for at least a week to see if there's any reaction (such as a food allergy or something along those lines). Jack can now roll over from stomach to his back. And he is holding his head up like he's been doing it for years. His legs are getting stronger and readying for the crawling he'll be starting soon and his favorite thing is probably still his swing. However, he's really got into watching movies with Mama lately. He loved the Transformers movie. (Congratulations Daddy, he is a Optimus Prime fan for sure). He's very ticklish and loves to listen to Mama read him books. Thank you to everyone that gifted him a book for Christmas. It means so much to Jeff and I will have the resources to teach our son to love reading and books as much as we do. The biggest (and cutest) development Jack has achieved recently is... laughing!

Jeff:

Everyone will be happy to know that Jeff has been able to pass out blankets to everyone in his platoon! And not only that but he's been able to supply first platoon with blankets too. Now, almost everyone in the battery is supplied with a blanket. Jeff says that they have nothing but good things to say about them. From the soldiers serving there and from their families here too, we would like to extend our deepest thank you to the family and friends that helped make this possible. And a big thank you to my mama, Beth. She organized this and has been working hard to make sure the blankets get sent and the soldiers are taken care of. On a different note, Jeff has recently had the opportunity to change up his schedule a little bit. He was on a convoy detail for a while. Although convoys aren't really any more fun than gun line shifts, I think he was happy to just get a break from the same old, same old.

Kate:

Ah, where to start. We'll start with the the bad. I've had to start seeing a chiropracctor for some back pain I've been having since I gave birth to Jack. At my first appointment, Dr, Brandon Hanes with Hanes Chiropractic out of Chillicothe, Ohio, did a couple of scans and an xray to see what the problem was. He told me that I have a curved spine, pinched nerves in my lumbar spine, and also osteo-arthritis. We are hoping with many treatments and home exercises that it can be repaired and my pain will go away. Because of the severity, he scheduled me to come in every other day since my first appointment last Saturday. Tomorrow is a week from that appointment and it will be my fourth visit. I am getting re-scanned tomorrow to see if the treatments have helped at all. Prayers please!

On, a lighter note, I'm gearing up to start my second session of class at Coastline College. My first day is February 2nd. I recently got my books in the mail and I'm taking Nutrition and Sociology. I'm pretty excited about the Nutrition class. Hopefully I will learn a thing or two about eating right, or maybe even three! That would definitely help me on my weight-loss journey.

Nothing else is really going on with the Davis family. We are a little over halfway done with deployment and couldn't be happier about that. We love our new addition to the family, Luna. She is fitting in just right and she and Jack are best buddies. We are still waiting on orders to see where we will be stationed when Jeff redeploys home. There is about a 65% chance that we will be staying at Fort Lewis in Washington but you never know! We will find out soon enough I suppose.

Bye for now and Love to all!

A Little Readjustment

I'm sitting in Jack's room waiting for him to fall asleep right now because of two reasons. One: he has a cough. Two: he has become much too used to sleeping in mommy's bed. Yesterday it took me 2 hours to get him to sleep in his crib. We're only just now going on one hour tonight and he's pretty close to dream land. So this is a big improvement from last night. I am a little worried about his cough and I think if its not better in the morning I will call the pediatrician. Just to be safe.

Daddy is supposed to be calling sometime tonight but we have yet to hear from him so far. Oh well. I know he will call if he can.

Avery and erin are in the living room watching "madeline" through my free trial of netflix. I found the converter box I needed to hook my computer to the tv. So they are watching the movie right from the internet, but they are watching it on the television. Isn't that cool? I am turning in my cable box to time warner either tomorrow or Friday. I just don't watch cable that much at all. (Only for my weekly guilty pleasure of "Bad Girls Club" on the Oxygen channel, but I will survive). Netflix is great for me. And the offer full past seasons of tons of tv shows. And the best part, its MUCH cheaper this way than paying for cable.

Okay this wind is crazy! The rain was comforting, but this wind is insanity. One of my favorite quotes came from a book I got at Hallmark for my soldier. "You look up and find a dark cloud overhead. It makes you feel sad. But then something starts to fall from above. It's rainshine, and it came straight from the silver lining." So in this case I guess the rainshine, err windshine is that I'm pretty sure I won't have to year blush for the next couple days.. wind burn makes a fairly good rouge!

I just tucked Avery in and the house is quiet. Jack is finally resting peacefully and Avery is well on her way to sleep in my room. I'm cuddled up on the couch with a hot cup of tea getting the very last of my Christmas shopping done. Prayers go out to my mama today. She is not feeling very well. May God heal your aches and make you new again. Love to all and goodnight!

Insomnia

It's five in the morning and my sleep cycle is ALL messed up. Jack has been out since about 2300 and I'm still awake. Obviously the fact that my hubby wakes up for his day around midnight our time has something to do with it. I just can't bring myself to go to sleep when A) I'm not really tired and B) I could be talking to him instead of staring at the ceiling in the dark trying to fall asleep. I think my plan for tonight, er, this morning is to just stay up. I might as well. I'll hope that this will make me tired enough to fall asleep around 2100. I'm hoping to get Jack and I on a 2100-0500 sleep schedule because thats what daddy's is when he's working in the states. We will see how this works out.

The past couple days have been filled with reconnecting with friends I hadn't seen in a while. Mainly, Dustie. Dustie and I have been best friends for quite a long time. We kept in contact when we graduated high school but not as much as we should have and wanted to. It's so good to be around him again. I need trustworthy friends that would help me no matter what if I needed it, and friends that are good with Jack. He definitely fits that description. (And I think my mama is glad to see him again too).

Ashley is another friend that I have missed. Of course I was still seeing her every once in a while, but again like with Dustie, not as much as we wanted. Laura and John watched Jack on Saturday so Ashley and I could head to River Valley mall to get some Christmas shopping done. We had a blast and found tons of really good deals, and I can fully say (with the exception of Ashley and Erin) I'm done with Christmas shopping! Woo! Go me! Well I guess I still have to get Jack's walker but other than that, completely done! AND, everything is wrapped! I know, I'm on a Christmas roll. I'm expecting a recruiting call from the North Pole fairly soon actually.

It's deployment update time! Jeff is, as usual, doing very well. He has recieved most of the boxes that you all have sent out so far. And he would like to say thank you. He loves getting mail and boxes. As most of you are aware already Jeff got word that his platoon will be moving locations. This could be a good or bad thing communication wise. We are not sure yet of the amenities that this new FOB will/does have. Only time will tell I suppose.I have been spreading the word to stop all mail going to Jeff until further notice. Well new information says you are now allowed to send mail to his current address until Friday, December 11th. After the 11th, please hold off on sending anything else until further notice to insure that Jeff will recieve your letter/box. Please pass these instructions along. To end our deployment update I would like to let everyone know that this past week Jeff, along with another medic, was named "Hero of the Week" for his unit. He was recognized for his efforts in helping at the aid station a few locals showed up with severe injuries from an IED. Our soldier is doing his job very well over there and even his superiors are noticing. Congratualations Jeff! Here's a picture of Jeff working on a howitzer that he sent me a couple days ago.

Jack is just over a week away from being 3 months old! I cannot believe my eyes sometimes when I look at him and see how much he's grown. He is now wearing Pampers #2 diapers for infants 12-18 pounds. Just little things like that make me realize how much time is flying. I need to enjoy and document every little moment. The precious moments I experience with him now will be replaced by others soon and I don't ever want to forget them. He is getting very strong, holding his head up to investigate his surroundings constantly. He still is a fan of his swing but usually only when he's sleepy. He loves the new mobile mommy got him as an early Christmas present. It runs on batteries so mommy doesn't have to keep re-winding it. It plays classical music, nature sounds, or a heart beat and has the traditional mobile hanging animals as well as a projector that provides circulating images on the mobile's underneath.

In closing, I'm offering big thanks to everyone that has been in contact with my mama and is donating a blanket to Jeff's unit. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such loving and caring support group. My prayer request for today is for all those military spouses going through the Christmas traditions alone right now. As civilians, most of my readers would never think something as small as putting out your snowman cookie tin would upset you. But the truth is holidays hurt for us and there's no way around it. My prayer is just that God will help you all to find peace this holiday season and love with friends and family. Love to all!

Long Day

We started our day at 8am today. I wasn't really feeling well this morning, but it passed as the day moved on. We got to talk to daddy online and enjoyed a morning and afternoon with uncle Max. Maxwell was a big help to have around today. You can tell how much he just loves Jack. He hates when Jack cries and always wishes he could fix him. He also fixed me lunch today! Woo, my little brother rocks!

Upon taking a walk to the North River Place Apartments office to get our mail I discovered an envelope waiting to make me smile! A letter from Afghanistan, my favorite return address! I love getting mail, especially from my husband. It just makes my whole day. We returned to Apt D9 and Max and I played some cards. I kicked his butt, of course!

Adam came to see Jack and I today and I am so glad! Oh, I've missed him so! He looked good and was 30 pounds lighter. Basic training will do that to you I guess. I'm happy to see that he is happy. I hope he can find some peace here now. And the best part of his visit.. he agreed to make me some lasagna one night! WOO! I can't wait.

My dad came to pick up Max and visited with Jack for a couple minutes. After that Jack and I headed to Sam's Club to meet my mama and Avery. They needed pretzel chips, of course. I just tagged along to see what I could find. I bought a cooking magazine that was highlighting the top 100 holiday cookies/treats of this year. I hope to try some of these out very soon. We went to dinner at Bob Evans following our shoppin and Hannah and Aunt Kathy showed up too. Our food took quite a long time to get to us, which we were not happy about. Shopping for an hour makes for hungry stomaches! But eventually we tasted long awaited nourishment and enjoyed every last bite. I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things I had forgotten the night before. Now exhausted Jack and I headed home, finally.

Ashley called and asked if she could come see her boy tonight, and of course I told her yes. She came over to find a sleeping Jack in his swing and waited and waited and waited for him to wake up. You can bet at the first sign of fussing, she was there to comfort his every worry. Jeff got back online after just waking up across the world. We got to chat with him for a couple hours and Ashley fed and put to sleep my baby boy. I'm thrilled to say that he is a much happier little boy at feeding times thanks to his new soy formlua, Similac Isomil.

Now, Jack is sleeping in his crib like the big boy he is and I am soon heading to my bedroom to lay my head as well. Prayers go out to a woman named Kelly and her daughter tonight. She is a friend of my friend Kyra and is going through some rough times dealing with illness in her daughter. Remember your blessings everyone, life itself is the biggest blessing of all. Love to all and goodnight!