Deployment :(

I've been putting off updating for a few days and now Mike has been gone about sixty hours. A lot of you have talked to him on facebook since he left and will already know everything I'm going to say. But for those of you who don't use facebook that often as well my friends who read this but don't generally talk to Mike directly, I'll give you the run down of what's been going on...

Mike is in Bahrain now after stops in Spain and Sicily. He'll be going out to his ship sometime soon.  He's excited and we're excited for him to finally get to do the job he signed up for after a year and a half in the Navy. We still expect him back sometime in July and haven't heard otherwise yet. That's really all there is to tell about that now, plain and simple.

Isabel and I are going to be in Virginia Beach for a few weeks until my glasses come in, then we're driving up to New York for Alyssa's wedding and will be there hopefully for a few weeks too. Probably until around Memorial Day weekend. After that, we expect visitors to come down, so set aside a weekend everyone, no excuses ;p . Being here alone hasn't been a lot of fun, but we're trying to make the best of it.  Today we're going to Isabel's favorite playground. There isn't ever going to be a lot I can tell you about Mike's deployment, he's just going to be gone until he isn't, so I wouldn't expect a lot of updates during the next few months. At least not about that. I will keep everyone posted on any information I do happen to get and am allowed to share, as well as anything notable that goes on with Isabel.

Talk to you all....sometime.

Well, here we are.

There's not a lot to post about that you haven't already learned either from facebook or from actually seeing us this weekend. Just thought I should make it clear to anyone who still wasn't sure that yes, we HAVE arrived safely in Virginia Beach. We spent five days in a hotel when we got here and explored the area....we went to the zoo...had picnics...visited malls and playgrounds....and then chose a cute little townhouse that challenges our budget at the moment, but being safe and comfortable in our home is worth the price at which it comes. After a week on the floor of said townhouse, our stuff arrived. I had us fully unpacked and settled by the end of that day and then we quickly hurried off, eager to take another long car trip and sleep on the floor for a few more days in New York. But we are home at last and it finally feels and looks that way, so schedule all your summer vacations for RIGHT HERE, guys! I'm gonna need the company!

Mike is in his second week of C school now. He'll be done Friday. As far as we know at the moment, he's supposed to be leaving us on the 27th of this month to join his ship on deployment and he will be gone for around two and a half months.

I had a lot of people this weekend ask me what I'll be doing with my boring old self during that time or how I'll handle it or what have you....the answer is that I'm just going to go ahead with life as usual. Get up every morning, take care of my child and keep her on her regular schedule, cook and clean my house, go to the park, buy groceries, do laundry....just as every brave and strong military wife I know has done, and usually for a whole lot longer than I will be doing it. My project for the time Mike is gone is to decorate our apartment to my liking, and he has okayed and even encouraged me to do this, so I'm very excited about that. I have also joined a meetup group for me and Isabel and am looking for a babysitting gig. I have a few connections in the area already and I hope to get together with those people soon and solidify those friendships, in addition to making more. So the short answer is that I will adjust and I will go ahead and learn the area and break in our new home the same way I would have done if Mike were here, just a little more independently (which will be a really good thing for me!) and with my ever loyal companion Isabel by my side. So don't worry about us, we're stronger than you think. Keep Mike in your thoughts though of course, and pray for a safe and fast return of his ship.

Should anything change or any new information become available to us about his deployment, I will let you know. See you all soon!

PCS time

Hello family. 

Since our move is FAST approaching now, I thought I'd update you on that as much as I can.

Pack and load day is March 17th. The movers will be packing for us which is a huge convenience, but also means that we'll be waking up here on moving day with practically nothing packed. This makes me nervous, but I can definitely live with it. Better than having to pack myself! In the next week, I'll just be working on getting everything organized for them. Since the 17th is also the last day we can be in this apartment, we'll be giving up our keys as soon as the movers are gone and setting out on the 17 hour journey to Virginia. Not expecting to get too far that night, but we aim to be in Norfolk by the end of the day on the 18th. Isabel has been on two long car trips in her life and it's never fun or easy, so send us your good thoughts and positive energy that day.

We have a number of days in Virginia before Mike has to report to work. We'll be staying in a hotel, viewing a few apartments in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and hopefully we'll have a lease signed by the time he's due to report. If you're wondering, our stuff will go into storage somewhere once it reaches Virginia and will be delivered to us as soon as we have a permanent address. It might sound like a crazy, scary thing to you guys, but it's pretty common in the military to move without knowing where you're moving to.

He has a 14 day school to attend in Norfolk before he attaches to his ship. which, as you know, is in the middle of a deployment. There isn't much chance that we'll be visiting home before he deploys, but he'll be back mid-summer.

I don't know how long it will take us to have the internet again, so it could be a while before I come back with an update about our new place, but you can count on getting small updates here and there via facebook. Talk to you guys soon!

and a brand new car!

I know you all knew we've been thinking about getting a new car for months now, and you probably also knew that we went to look at one Saturday (just to look) and ended up bringing it home that night. But as of yesterday, it is no longer on loan, the papers are signed. We are the proud owners of a 2011 Stormy Blue Mazda CX7! This isn't a great picture because I took it from my living room window, but I told Mike he could be the one to post pictures of it on facebook (so I cheated and did it here, haha). They couldn't clean it for us yesterday because there weren't any porters working, so he's bringing it back Friday and once it's all shined up I'm sure there will be all the requisite pictures of the car, us with the car, Isabel driving the car, and all the other cheesy stuff that I love. This is very exciting for us, we didn't expect to end up with a BRAND new car, but it was a way better deal. Mike wanted a Mazda and I wanted a family car, he wanted a stick and I wanted automatic, so this was the perfect match. Driving up to NY/NJ from Virginia is going to be no problem now!

Just a quick update...

Well, I don't have much to update on in regards to the move. The good news is that we're getting a decent chunk of money back on our taxes and that's taking a lot of the stress out of this whole process. We're almost definitely not getting base housing right off the bat. I'm disappointed but I can't say I'm surprised, we knew from the get-go that the housing in Norfolk was very limited.  What I'm hoping now is that we can move into housing somewhere down the road, even if we have to rent out in town for a few months first. Mike detaches from Great Lakes on March 16th and we'll be headed to VA to view in person some of the apartments we've been looking at online. He doesn't have to actually report to the base there until the 27th so it gives us some time to find a place and get settled. I also recently learned that he doesn't attach to his ship until April 27th, so that means we have at least a month in Virginia before he heads out to join them on their deployment. He also won't miss Easter or my 25th birthday, yay!

On the Isabel front, her new favorite activity is twirling. It's pretty cute. She's a tornado, like any toddler, but definitely a very funny and sweet little girl. I've taken up yoga and she loves to mimic my poses. Her downward facing dog puts mine to shame. I sometimes catch her reading books to herself and doing all the hand motions I usually do when I read them. She's also very attached to her baby dolls and I find her cradling them and cooing to them. I had hoped to skip the undressing herself milestone, but the last few days have proven that that's not going to happen. She's so far only figured out how to take off her pants and diaper, which means a naked baby butt runs through my living room at least once a day.

That's really all that's been going on here. At this point, most of the things left to do before we move (like packing) are still a few weeks in the future. We've just been living out a stomach bug, watching the snow fall, and delighting in the fact that we'll likely never have to endure another Chicago winter.

Isabel's checkup

This morning we went for Isabel's final doctor's appointment here at Great Lakes. She won't need to be seen again for another six months and by then, we'll be in Virginia. And since they recently combined Naval Health Clinic Great Lakes with the North Chicago VA Medical Center and moved it all to a new building, we got to experience the country's first federal health care center. It's a bit of a pain to go through re-registering in a new place for just one appointment but hey, it's historic.

So I thought I'd give you a little update on Isabel. She's weighed in today at 23 lb and 12oz, 31 inches long. This is a gain of 3 lbs and 6 oz from our last appointment two months ago, which is awesome! Her height and weight are both in the 62nd percentile right now. Her height has been around there all along but her weight dropped all the way to the 17th this past summer and is up now from being in the 30th in November. So her doctor and I were both pretty excited about that. Developmentally, she's right on track. She does all the things on the 15 month checklist and several of the ones on the 18 month as well. My only concern was that I'm worried she doesn't say enough real words yet, but the doctor said she's actually completely average for her age, as far as talking. She understands me, so we know there isn't a hearing problem, and she babbles to herself pretty consistently, so we know she gets the concept of language (she also reads and sings to herself). So there aren't any concerns with her right now, we have a normal and healthy little girl, which is great to hear. The doctor did say she was "intense" with her emotions, but she thought I handle it pretty well. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

There's not much else to report on right now. My camera recently gave up the fight, which is why you're not seeing any new pictures of the princess right now. We've already ordered another though, so don't worry. There's a long list of things to consider, do, and buy before we move, so we're working on sorting through all of that but no final decisions have been made on anything. The life of a military wife will drive a natural-born planner nuts, it really will. :)

I hope everyone is well, miss you guys!

The ship Mike is going to be on just deployed. I believe it was today, and I have a picture for you.

See, that's Mike's ship!

After we move, Mike is supposed to be flown out to join them, even though the deployment will be winding down by then and he'll only be gone two or three months. Not bad for a first deployment, huh?