Happy New Year

I am envisioning y'all at fabulous parties in fabulous outfits, drinking martinis and champagne as I write this.  I hope y'all are envisioning me the same way although clearly I am not doing any of those things as I am sitting in my bed typing.  In my sweatpants.  Without a bra on.  Although I did manage to make it to the shower today and it only took 1 full bar of soap to wash the 2 days worth of vicks vapo rub and vasoline off of me (Vicks for my congestion, vaseline for my aching nose).  Seriously it was like watching a oil soaked seal get cleaned by the team at Dawn.

Y'all there has been a plague upon our house.  Poor Em was sick starting before Christmas till just this past Friday.  I came down with it on Thursday and am still sick and poor Paul has been congested with a scratchy throat (hopefully that is the worst of it for him and not the start of his turn). 

Paul: You seem to be breathing hard, honey, like you just ran a marathon. 

Me: I can't breath. 

I'm sitting in bed typing and sound like I've just run a marathon.  Ahhh the joys of being congested.  Good thing Paul sleeps on my left side because I can no longer hear out of my right ear.  And the fact that the skin around my nose is dry and raw and painful has convinced me I will never have to worry about being a cocaine user.  I can't deal with the nose pain. 

Our NYE have gotten progressively worse since we've been together.  I think the last NYE we actually did anything was in GA and we had our friends Emily and Clay over to drink and play Wii.  Our first year in Boston we fell asleep at 11:45pm.  Last year Paul was deployed and I was in bed by 10pm and this year we've been in bed since 8pm working on my business Serenity Counseling Online.  We are truly, truly pathetic y'all.  Why am I even still awake now?  Because I am one of those people who can NOT have any computer stimulation prior to bedtime.  It makes my brain crazy and keeps me awake so clearly continuing to be on the computer and blogging has been a smart choice. 

Of course the fact that I haven't slept in well over a week between Emma's illness and my own doesn't help.  Who can sleep when you have to blow your nose every 4 minutes or risk drowning in your own snot???  Oh how I hate breathing through my mouth although I guess there is a worse alternative. 

Anyways, I just wanted to wish y'all a very happy new year and a fantastic 2013!  I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and fabulous evening and I will go to bed dreaming of champagne and martinis and fabulous parties.  Please comment and share what you did tonight so I can live vicariously through you! 

Some Holiday Cheer

Emma woke up Saturday with a cough and woke up after her nap with a fever.  She's been sick since then and, because I'm a crazy person, sleeps with us when she's sick.  She's super congested and so throws up when she coughs.  Yay. 

Last night was the second night in a row she slept with us.  Between her crying because she wanted the pacifier, her throwing up, us needing to change sheets/her shirt/the nests of towels we made her sleep in we did NOT get a lot of sleep. 

The following conversation occurred at 5am this morning:

Paul: If she's gonna sleep in her tomorrow we need to trim her toenails. 

Jenn: Ok.

Paul: It feels like a tiny eagle is trying to land on my back.

Jenn: hysterical, no sleep laughter

Paul:  I need one of those gloves like falcon people wear.

(If you have kids you may have read the book I Have 10 Little Fingers and if so you may recognize the following)

Jenn: I have 10 little daggers and they all belong to me.  I can make them do things would you like to see.

Paul:  I can hang from a tree branch.

Jenn: I can grab fish out of the sea.

At this point all reason was lost and as tears rolled down my face from laughing and Emma finally feel asleep we got to sleep, too. 

Okay, it seemed funnier in person, but hopefully you got a little laugh out of it.  Merry Christmas Eve! 

Holiday Letters

It's the most wonderous time of the year.  The time of year when Christmas cards begin to arrive and with them the arrival of the holiday letter.  I love holiday letters!  I love how they are all written with the same language and same tone.  You know what I'm talking about.  Most holiday letters look like this:

Greetings from the Zachariah family!  Boy, has 2012 been a busy year.  We traveled to Hawaii/Istanbul/Greece (you notice no one ever writes that they traveled to Idaho or Iowa) and saw some amazing sites.  The kids had a great time and were absolute angels on the plane.  Praise Jesus we all slept the entire flight and didn't suffer from any jet lag (again, no one ever writes about getting butt ass wasted on the flight and getting detained going through customs). 

Little Jeremiah is the spitting image of his dad and won his little league national championship for the entire world!  I know!  It looks like we have a future major league baseball player on our hands.  Yes, he may be only 2 years old, but I just know he's going to be drafted out of high school and make millions allowing us to retire and live in a 12,000 square foot mansion with maids for the rest of our lives. 

Sally Mae has had a great year as well.  She was the youngest competitor in the Miss USA pageant and although she didn't win, her inspiring natural talent on the viola has allowed us to sign a record deal with Columbia Records.  She will be traveling with the Vienna Orchestra this fall so you guessed it.  We are all moving to Vienna! 

Luckily, Jasper's company has an office over there and he was able to get a transfer and a huge promotion.  God sure is smiling down on us! 

I've been just as busy as always.  Not only did I serve as President of the PTA, but I also was the Junior League President AND raised $1.2million for the local children's hospital.  I'm not sure why God has picked me to undertake such a large task, but He provided me with direction and we got it done!  Go me! 

Hopefully everyone else had an amazing 2012.  We will keep you posted on our adventures in Vienna. 

All our love,
Lisbeth, Jasper, Sally Mae, and Jeremiah

I get out a holiday letter about every other  year.  This year I was lazy and didn't even send out Christmas cards.  If I had sent out a holiday letter though our theme would've been "we survived".

Greetings from the McArtor family!

Every year I think this is the year life settles down and every year I am proven wrong.  2010 I spent most of the year on bedrest, 2011 we had our Emma and Paul deployed, and 2012 has been just as crazy!

We survived Paul's deployment.  He survived his time in Afghanistan and, as a couple, we reintigrated into marriage life fairly seamlessly.  Jenn was able to bite her tongue most of the time and recognize that she had to take a step back and let Paul do some parenting.  Paul did a great job re-bonding with Emma and jumped right back in to married life and fatherhood.

We survived a hellacious flight to Turks & Caicos with food poisoning and had a great time the next day and for the rest of our vacation.

We survived a miscarriage. 

Jenn survived the sudden and tragic death of an old friend as well as the passing of several close family friends.  You know your parents are getting older when their friends start passing away in rapid succession.

We survived a chemical pregnancy.  We know it may not sound like much, but our hopes were up and then they weren't.  It was almost harder than the miscarriage.  At least we knew the miscarriage was going to happen from the get go.

We survived a change in Paul's job and his traveling out of town once a month.

We survived having two 21 year olds live with us for 5 weeks.  You will know you are middle aged if you ever have 21 years old live with you. 

We survived a road trip to Washington DC and to Buffalo, NY/Toronto Canada. 

We survived 2 months of non stop company.  Luckily, Jenn loves to have company and Paul tolerates people fairly well.  haha

We survived a rough first trimester.  Jenn loves morning sickness!

We survived Jenn's surgery to have a cerclage placed.  You can read about her first cerclage here.  I guarentee it's worth reading.

We survived Jenn and Emma spending 2 weeks in Florida. 

We survived the end of the world.  I mean so did everyone else, but hey why not!

2013 promises to be another exciting year with a baby due in May and a move sometime in June or July.  We don't know where yet, but will find out between January and March where we are headed. 

God bless and may your holidays be merry and bright!

Love, Jenn, Paul, Emma, and baby #2

 

Ring My Bell

I think for about forever I've wanted to ring the bell for the Salvation Army at Christmas time.  For me that is the true start of the Christmas season when the Salvation Army bell ringers come out and this year every time we went somewhere Em got to put money in the bucket.  While we were in Floriday Paul volunteered to be a bell ringer at the mall and when I said I wanted to do it he signed us up to do it together.  Today was our day and it went great!

Of course since we had to kind of get up and get going this morning Em slept in.  I woke up at 8:20 and she was still sleeping.  We had decided we wanted to leave our house at 9:15 so we had to wake her up to get her ready. 

Being the domestic goddess that I am I still whipped up some blueberry pancakes for breakfast, we ate, and off we went.  We weren't sure how Em would do as we had signed up for a 2 hour shift and that's a long time for a toddler to do anything. 

I don't want to brag, but her behavior was nothing shy of perfect.  She rang the bell, she played with her doll, she sang songs, she wished people Merry Christmas and told them thank you when they put money in the bucket.  It was awesome.  At the end she was getting sleepy so she sat quietly on my lap the last 15 minutes of our shift. 

All in all if you want to rank in the cash donations get yourself a little kid.  People loved her!!  We decided that this was the start of a new McArtor family tradition.  Next year we are really going to tug on people's heart strings and put the girls in matching elf costumes. 
Merry Christmas!!!

Volunteering is hard work!

The Return

Even though we got home from FL Saturday I think it's taken me this long to process Emma's behavior at the airport.  Holy hell on a cracker.  My mom drove us to the airport and we stopped for lunch on the way.  It started when we left the restaurant.  Em was a little fussy in the restaurant, but not terrible; however, when we left Sweet Tomatoes (I wish we had one by us) she was hysterical in the car.  And by hysterical I mean she cried to the point of throwing up.  Nothing says classy like stopping in front of the country club golf course to clean vomit off your toddler. 

Em settled down and we finally made it to the airport where I kept it classy by changing her clothes in the parking lot.  The airport has a really nice aquarium and so we let Em stop and look at it.  Big mistake because she screamed the entire way through security.  I actually saw one man roll his eyes at us and I couldn't blame him because I wanted to cry myself.  It was one of those moments where everyone around us was praying we weren't on their flight. 

After I loaded up our 6 bins worth of crap to go through the xray machine, unhooked the car seat from the transporter, dragged Emma behind me, the TSA agent tells me that they are going to have to pat me down because I have too many pouches of baby purees.  Um, what?  I know I flew down with 4, but the 7 I had now were too many.  What was I going to do?  Blow up the plane with organic quinoa, banana, and peach puree?  For the love of all that is good and holy these people knew I was traveling alone, but sure let me strap my screaming child into her car seat while you all pat me down and then make her wait longer while I open up all her milk sippies so you can test them as well which strangely the TSA agent in Boston was able to open on his own without my help. 

25 minutes later and I'm wondering if we are going to miss our flight.  The gate is pretty busy and I must have had that deer in a headlights look trying to find a place for us to sit because a man sitting on the end of a row graciously moved so we could sit down.  I had learned from our flight down so I asked the Jetblue employees at the counter to help us board the plane. 

We managed to get to our seats without killing anyone or spilling anything (Praise Jesus).  I knew Em was tired because it was nap time.  God was on our side because she fell asleep about 20 minutes into the flight and slept until we started descending.  I used the bathroom on my own, enjoyed a snack, read my book.  It was delightful.  Mama for sure needed that break!

Again, we waited until everyone deplaned and the flight attendant helped us off.  Of course the pilot had gotten off the plane for some reason and then the flight attendant put the car seat at the entrance of the plane ensuring that the poor pilot had to wait another 20 minutes while I got the car seat all hooked back up and pack muled myself up.  Sweet peanuts! 

I have never been so happy to see Paul in my whole life. 

Of course Em has not been happy about having to sleep in her crib since we've been home, but she's getting better.  I think she is getting a new tooth. 

And we found out that we're having another girl!  I'm pretty sure we've decided on a name, but want to tell family first. 

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season! 

Lonely

Undoubtedly one of the best and worst things about military life is moving every 3 to 4 years. I love meeting new people, living someplace new, and having new adventures, but I miss having a close circle of friends.

When I first moved to GA I was homesick for FL and when I first moved to MA I was homesick for GA. When we move next summer I don't think I'll miss MA.

Being in FL these past 2 weeks and seeing all my old friends has just reinforced how lonely I feel at home. Yes, we have met great people in MA and yes, we have friends I enjoy spending time with, but its different.

I lived in FL a long time and worked everywhere and so I knew everyone. I have so many good friends here. In GA I found a group of women that I had just an instant connection with. In MA I am lonely for that. Everyone is spread out and busy up here. The friends I have I am lucky if I see every other month. I want a close mommy group of friends like I have in FL and GA. I want Emma to have friends. Sadly, the women I've spent the most time with in the last year 6 months have been the 3 women who work in the babysitting room at the gym! And I cried on the last day I took Em to say goodbye. I don't think I'll cry when we leave MA.

Perhaps part of the blame is on me. I haven't really put myself out there or pursued things like I could've, but I also was dealing with deployment and miscarriages and didn't really feel like I had anyone I could talk to about those things. If you've never had a miscarriage you don't know, if you're not a military spouse you don't know and so it was easier to stay by myself.

Except now I see all these mommies I know in MA posting on facebook about play group or girls night out and I realize I don't have those relationships in MA.

So tonight I feel a little sad. I'm ready to head home to my hubby. I've missed him like crazy and I know Em does, too, but I wish I could import some of my friends from here to there.

I'm not one to feel sorry for myself. I don't think it serves any purpose plus I recognize at all times how blessed I am. That loneliness though. That's a tough one.

17 weeks

I haven't blogged about the pregnancy in awhile, but its because our toddler is becoming a TODDLER (I can NOT hear the word no one more time).

I'm in that weird pregnancy space where I don't feel pregnant, I don't feel the baby moving much yet, and I just look fat. Although people do seem to notice I'm pregnant perhaps because I look about what I did when I was six months along with Em. Yikes! What is 9 months going to look like???

Of course we are once again having to take a break from all extracurricular activities (cough, cough you know what I mean. If you don't, don't ask). We figured out we've spent over half our marriage being celibate (2 pregnancies and a deployment). Lawdy. At least we know our marriage isn't based on sex. Haha

I finally started Christmas shopping. I usually am done early but we had so much other stuff going on in October and November (I've been to the airport like 10 times in 5 weeks or something crazy) that it just wasn't a priority.

And hubby tells me tonight he's volunteering tomorrow as a Salvation Army bell ringer which is something I've wanted to do FOREVER! So he is going to try to sign him, me, & Em up for the 22nd. Yay!

And I've decided to forgo sending Christmas cards this year to make a donation to a charity instead. Although there's a good chance I'll put one of those annoying holiday letters on my blog. I know you'll be waiting with baited breath.

Hope everyone is calm and joyful. Remember there's no reason to be stressed! Santa is coming!

The Beach

Yesterday I decided to take Em to the beach after she wouldn't take a nap. I laid down to take a nap. Em just played. Sigh.

First we had to stop at Kilwin's for ice cream. If you've never been to a Kilwin's I feel sad for you. As you can see Em enjoyed it. Sadly she didn't eat her entire cone so mommy had to help her out (after I ate mine of course). Somehow I ended up covered in ice cream.

Let me start off by saying Em loves playing in the sand. Loves it! Ask Paul how many times he's succeeded in keeping her out of the sandbox at the playground. If you guessed what's less than 1 you'd be correct.

Then I thought it'd be smart to go down to feel the water. I was wrong. The lifeguard stand said the water temp was 68 degrees. You couldn't have paid me to go in. Em, on the other hand, was all for swimming as evidenced by her yelling "swimming" and jumping into the water. I don't think she expected her head to go unde. I was quite surprised by the entire event as well. Was it wrong that I laughed? After I made sure she was out of the water of course.

After I hauled her out of the water, my intention was to get up to the towel and change her into dry clothes (I almost NEVER have a change of clothes with me. Praise Jesus I did then or she would've riding home in a diaper. Of course Em felt sitting immediately in the sand while soaking wet was a better idea. Have you ever changed the diaper of a wet, sandy baby? I'd not recommend it.

I left her shorts off as her legs were covered in sand. My second smart move of the day as she dumped a bucket of water on her lap. Sigh.

She was NOT happy when it was time to go home. And by not happy I mean she dead weighted it in the sand. Have you ever dragged a toddler through sand by their arm while carrying a diaper bag, 2 buckets, and 2 beach towels? It's quite the work out let me assure you.

After I stuffed the now screaming toddler into her car seat we stopped by Publix for some $9 grapes. After the cashier assured me that yes it was in American dollars and not pesos we went back to my dad's and straight into the shower. Seriously $9.22 for a 2lb bag of grapes although I think the 80 year old cashier might have been leaning on the scale.

Lesson learned don't let Em near the water and don't buy grapes in FL at Publix! Although we did get some amazing Plant City strawberries! Yum, yum!

Airplane

Sunday Em and I flew to Florida to spend a couple weeks with her grandparents. I wasn't worried about how she'd do on the flight, but I was nervous about how we'd get through security and onto the plane...just me, Em, our carry on, my purse, and her car seat.

Hubby took us to the airport and came inside to help with the luggage. We said goodbye at security and I have to say JetBlue is so family friendly. We got to go through the more legroom/crew line. I've learned not to feel rushed going through security and just to take my time. I had to take the car seat off the car seat transporter (it looks like a luggage carrier) and it wouldn't fit through the X-ray machine but TSA was very helpful and friendly.

Of course I was sweating like I'd run a marathon by the time I got my sneakers back on, but our first hurdle was down.

We got to the gate and was told to board the plane after the more legroom people got on. Of course this was also after 7 senior citizens in wheelchairs got on. At this point the first 10 rows of the plane and the exit rows are full and here we come. This is where it started to get dicey.

Prior to boarding I had spilled iced coffee all down the back of my shirt. Em does not want to walk onto the plane and is crying. I'm trying to carry my coffee, my purse, the diaper bag, Em's backpack, my sweater, AND the carseat. Nightmare! Did I mention the ob told me I'm not supposed to be carrying anything heavy?

A flight attendant took Em's backpack and my coffee. About row 4 Em saw some people she decided looked nice and walked into their row to sit with them. I kept going assuming my daughter was not going to be kidnapped off a plane. The flight attendant carried Em. After I had given 15 people minor concussions by hitting them with my purse another flight attendant came and took the carseat. Praise Jesus!

We made it to our seat, slightly more sweaty, and I got Em settled in her carseat. About an hour into the flight we got up to use the restroom and I knocked the coffee of the gentleman next to me onto the floor. His full cup if coffee. Sigh.

This time I asked the flight attendant if they could help us get off the plane if we waited for everyone else to deplane. Phew!

Em slept the rest of the flight and woke up about 20 minutes before we landed. We waited patiently while everyone else got off to the point that the cleaning crew got on and was cleaning before we left the plane. Haha.

My mom picked us up and it was so nice to see and feel the sun (and see mom, too, of course). It was snowing yesterday at home and today I wore shorts (that I had to go but Monday lol).

Mom got Em this frog which we have at my dad's where we are staying.

And waking up and having my coffee on the lanai overlooking the lake is blissful!