Happy Birthday, Mom.

Nearly a year ago, I lost my mother to brain cancer. This disease plagued her from the time I was 12 until October of last year when God called this angel home. Today would have been her 64th birthday. I feel like I lost my mother a long time ago due to her failing health. Her first surgery to remove the tumor changed her personality (I used to joke that they removed the part of her brain that liked me :)). But she was never the same since. Her radiation treatments left her mostly deaf, but she was unable to learn sign language due to her short term memory loss from the tumor. She was severely unbalanced...to the point when I had Joe 5 years ago I could not let her carry him for fear she would fall. But when I was a young child....wow...what an amazing woman. I remember her cheering my brother and I at swim meets. Never thinking twice on driving us all over town to our activities. She made home cooked meals nearly every night after working as a teacher all day, which she did for 20+ years. She was a strict mother but had very loving moments. And even though our relationship the last few years of her life was very tense I will never forget the last time I saw her when she recognized me....I told her I love in and signed it to her in sign language...and she attempted to sign it back. Through my tears she knew I understood. She made all of my Easter dresses by hand, even two prom dresses after her first round of cancer. After being given a 2 in 10,000 chance of survival in the early 90s she saw many things until 2007, including both of her kids graduating high school, college, both get married, and meeting and loving two grandchildren. And although she will miss her last grandchild from me....I like to think she had a little part in us getting our little girl. I hope this year on her birthday she gets a well deserved party in heaven :) complete with roses (her favorite) and whatever cake she pleases as long as she doesn't have to make it :).

I love you, Mom. And we all miss you. Happy Birthday.

Here are a couple of pictures of my mother. One at Thanksgiving in 2006...not completely healthy but how I remember her most, and one of her holding Garrett just weeks before she passed.

A little paint and a little pink

Since Katie is coming and I didn't want to totally redo the nursery I just added some girly touches to the room. It is an underwater theme with several fish, a turtle, a crab, and a surfboard. The surfboard orginally was green and had Garrett's name, so I changed that. I added some butterflies, flowers, and gave the already existing turtle some "loving thoughts". I also had blue bubbles on the wall and I put some pink ones in between. I hung a pink curtain, and plan on replacing the blue rug with a pink or purple one.

The since Joe had his name already in the boys' room Garrett's need to be added. Their room has a rodeo theme to it. Joe has his name on a barrel which says "Joe's Rodeo Co." I decided the area of the closet would be a good spot fro Garrett and maybe an awning would be nice.....now for the phrase. Of course, his signature nickname around here "Garretto's Burritos" :)

Oh Baby!!

Well had yet another doc appt....have to go every week now. Lil one looks good, but it looks like all these contractions I have had are starting to work. 2 cm and 50% effaced now (I was just 1cm and not effaced). Actually worried my doc a lil. Although I want this kid OUT, she needs to cook til at least Sept 30th. I cannot deliver in the post hospital until then. So maybe the 29th I'll be doing jumping jacks...heheeh. But until then I am taking some meds to help with contractions. My doc also fussed about my weight again. I just can't put much on....or well any in about a month. I'm trying though....I really am.
I'm trying to get some last minute things ready for Katie too. Been doing some painting in her room, went on a major shopping spree this weekend. Now if I can finish up the painting and get my hair cut one more time I will be set to deliver :).

Hurry up and wait...

This is an all too common theme in the Army world. Gets kind of frustrating at times. But we will power on to the beat of that slow drum. I don't think I mentioned that when Joe arrived in Korea his unit had no clue he was coming. So needless to say they didn't have a command for him in any near future. The first word we got was about a month ago that Joe would take command in March of 09. Oh boy....that means he would be home a lil over a year after that. So maybe May-June of 2010.....uh that's almost 2 years of tour...uugh. Joe decided to look elsewhere but also considered doing his 12-18 month tour and then coming home without a command and letting the Army figure it out from there. Two years is just TOOO long. Then we got word of a command in Jan 09....ok still not fun but we can deal with that (home in Jan-Feb 2010). Now we have heard of one coming up next month, unfortunately with that one he still probably won't come home any sooner (mainly because it is a longer command). Then there was the issue of R&R (a leave that most are able to get with deployments). We had been told with such a long tour he would probably get nearly a month of leave...woohooo!!! But then bad news....they didn't want to let Joe come home around Christmas like we had hoped because of some field exercises going on at the time. They also said the leave could vary from 6 days (yea right!!!) to a couple of weeks. Everything has just been a whirlwind. Now Joe says it may even be May of 09 before the leave....which isn't terrible but I kinda had my lil "I get to see my hubby clock in ________ days" set for Christmas.
Oh well.....hurry up and wait. "You never know until orders are in your hand" is what Joe always tells me. And even then things can change. I'm just a little sad...hormonal...and feeling like I am carrying a sack of horse feed around my middle chasing after two kids. So this is getting to me. Just wish they could come up with a plan. But what can I do? Thus is the life of a soldier.....and his whiny, round, pregnant wife :)

Great news for Garretto Burrito!

This is not usually where I post about medical stuff but I was so excited I just want everyone to know :). Most everyone knows my kids have reflux. Joe is a severe case....combined with other GI issues. And Garrett was considered a moderate refluxer. He had an appt today and I was really hopeful because he has done so well lately. His doc (who is also Joe's GI) was just as impressed with him as I am :). He agreed that Garrett looks fantastic. He is actually above the 50% (has been 25% or below since birth) for weight and has even grown 2 inches just since May!! Then came the really good news. We are going to start tapering his reflux med!!!! We are adding a less potent one and he will be on both for a few days then I will decrease the heavy one over a couple weeks time. And hopefully around Christmas he will be off all meds!!!!!! I am more than excited about this. We have always been concerned since even talking about having more children after Joe and needless to say I was terrified when he was refluxing before we even left the hospital when he was born. Dr. M just looked at me today and said, "This is cake compared to Joe isn't it?" and I said "Heck yea!" Of course we love Joe to pieces but no one wants their child to have such health issues. If lil Katie is anywhere near where Garrett is I will be thrilled. So hopefully the next few weeks will be great for Garrett and his reflux road will officially be over :).

One more appt down...

I had another OB appt. Everything looks about the same as before. I gained a lil bit of weight so she was happy to see that. I'm measuring at 32 weeks and her heartbeat was about 144. Ultrasound looked good. She is still very low but at least there was a lil fluid between her and my cervix this time. I am still about 1cm dialated. She had her schedule for the 1st 2 weeks of October but not the 2nd 2. She said when she got it she would give me a call and we would schedule a date for an induction :):):). She would also be looking at who was on Labor and Delivery everday and if she sees me checked in she will come down and help :). I'm pretty happy even though I am pretty miserable too. By this time with the boys I was on bedrest and magnesium. ANYTHING is better than that stuff. I took a pic using the timer on my cam this afternoon.....so here is the Katie bump :)