neighbors moving

It is the end of a (very short) era. Sheena and Hun are moving on post, and away from us :( I'm happy because I know that it will be GREAT for them to be on post, but I will miss having a good friend next door. I sure hope that the next neighbors (moving in in a day or two) will be as understanding and wonderful about our many children as we share a wall as Sheena and Hun were.

We'll miss you guys, you'll have to come back for a visit soon (or we will invade your new house :D )

the girls, reunited

Kearstin and Shiloh sliding at the GSU wildlife center last week.

whirlwind to ga

The night before we left for GA, I was running a horrible fever, but I thought it was just another one of my many sicknesses, so I packed us up as well as I could, and bright and early tuesday morning, we were on our way. I was sick the entire drive there. We took 2 days, and I slept almost the entire trip. Wednesday evening, I ended up having to go to the ER when we arrived. I had full fledged, horrible strep throat! I got some medicine and was starting to feel better by Thursday morning.

Thursday, we discovered that our financing from the army had been delayed....a problem if we wanted to rent a huge u-haul and pack up our stuff. That was pretty stressful, and it ended with us realizing that I was going to have to come back with the kids by myself to get them back to school on time and leave Tyrone in Georgia until the army got it together on the following Tuesday (today.)

Resigned to that, we decided to enjoy the rest of our mini vacation together. We went to my mom's new place, and got to visit, and then met her fiancee, William. We even had fried chicken from Lady and Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant....I was eating there before you had heard of her :) ) We went back to our hotel and had a quiet night, with some visits from Tyrone's sisters Tiny and TC, and some of our nephews and one of our nieces.

Friday morning found Tyrone with Strep! So, back to the ER, and he got taken care of. Then, we met Melissa & Co. at the wildlife center, and it was SO GOOD to see them! We had alot of fun there, and then took the kids to chick-fil-a with the thought that they would eat lunch, when they really just played on the playground :) We went back to the hotel to rest, and then went to Jeanie's! It was a really fun time, and the cousins got to play together, and the adults got to visit. Unfortunately, my camera was out of comission for much of the visit, but I do have a few pics from our time at Jeanie's...

Then, the dreaded Sat. morning rolled around. Tyrone and I loaded up the kids and said goodbye. I again took 2 days, and the 4 of us managed to survive, with much prayer, the 1,100 miles from GA to NY. We got back Sunday afternoon, and Tyrone should be back Friday morning....I can barely wait. I miss him an awful lot for someone that made it through a 13 month deployment....my reasoning is that I've spent more then enough time away from him!

Anyway, there you go, our trip to GA! Where, by the way, the weather was delightful. We wore short sleeves and walked barefoot.....and then it snowed on me as I was driving into NY.

on the road again...

When we moved up here back in Oct., we only brought what I could stuff in the back of the Tahoe and in a 4x8 trailer. Needless to say, by the time I stuffed clothes, our washer and dryer, air mattresses, Shiloh's crib, a couple of boxes of toys and books, linens, 2 cats and their paraphernalia, and a rat and his stuff in there, well, that was about all that there was room for. The rest of everything was packed away into our storage unit. We've been trying for a while to organize getting our household goods up here, and the army finally is cooperating!!

Tyrone has been granted leave to travel down to GA, I have arranged with the boy's teachers to do their school work with them on the road so that they don't get behind....and we're leaving tomorrow!!! It'll be alot of driving, and I'm sure that the kids won't be thrilled when they realize that it will be over 2,000 miles (4 days) of driving in 6 days, but it'll be ok. We have built in plenty of get out and run around time and are staying at hotels w/ fun things like indoor pools.

OH! And then there's the fact that we were able to build in the most wonderful part of all....time with people we love!! Mom took one of the 2 days that we will be down there off of work to see us, and she's going to watch the kids so that Tyrone and I can load the truck up asap, and then we will spend the rest of that day with her. The next day I get to see my Melissa! She should TOTALLY have a baby belly by now, and I can't wait to see! Plus, her kids and my kids love each other, and we have a fun little trip planned for all of them. We are also going to see Tyrone's sisters that live down there, always fun! And, on the morning that we leave, we will get to have breakfast with Jeanie, my sister, and let all the kids run crazy together in her yard for an hour or two.

I may also be excited about the fact that it should be about 75 degrees on the days we are down there....of course, its supposed to SNOW on the day that we get back up to NY. But, whatever. It can't snow on my parade in GA :)

cook out

We took advantage of the sun and the warm (um, not, but it did get up to a whole 40 degrees...) weather to cook out with our neighbors Joelynn and Darius (Jaylin's parents). We stayed out as long as we could, and let the kids run crazy and play in the mud....note the dirt ALL OVER Shiloh....and grilled ALOT. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, steak, portobello mushrooms (for me!!), and chips (ok, we all have alot of left overs, lol)

When it was too cold to stay outside any longer, we went to their house and played Uno while the kids played. It was fun!





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boy time

18 months

Our own personal princess is one and a half years old today. It is also the day that she discovered that violently shaking her head would cause her wet curls to slap her in the face. Watch the video, and turn up the volume!!

sunday afternoon

summer, i miss you!

Yesterday I MAY have been missing summer just a tad when I went shopping and began acquiring Shiloh's summer wardrobe. I MAY have been sick enough of the cold and bundling up that when she grabbed one of her new sundresses I obliged and even helped her out with coordinating hair clippies (since we're not venturing out this morning). I also MIGHT have bought her pots, pans, and play food for her kitchen that all of the children have had tons of fun playing with.





This is the pout that Shiloh uses to wrap her Daddy around her little finger....really, could you resist?

Checking on her food...

I love this dress (oh, and I love thrift stores, and am not ashamed!!) :)

She has such a pretty laugh, I'll have to record it one of these days to put on here...

Gabe wanted to play too....I was actually a bit surprised and happy to see how much the boys would get into the kitchen stuff....maybe they will cook for their families some day!

Sooooo silly!

Pretend picnic together

Ready for a melt your heart moment? Here ya go!

Also, I have been married to my best friend for 3 years today. Happy anniversary, baby! (not celebrating today, b/c of work and all, so more later!)

sorry, sorry!

Sorry to keep everyone waiting for an update on how things went at my appt. The long and the short of if is that I am still about where I was. We (Sheena and I) made our way to Syracuse VERY early Thurs. morning and got into my appt. a little early. To his credit, my dr. realized that things are not going well with my jaw, still, but he didn't seem to remember me....ugh.

Anyhow, he injected Lidocaine INTO my face. Ouch. It numbed everything for a good while, and it was nice that I was pain free. Unfortunately, I got a headache a couple of hours later. My doctor does not think that the two are related, but, really, the timing is a little coincidental. Who knows. On Sat., Tyrone said enough is enough and took me to the ER. They tried to help me but ended up giving me something that I had an allergic reaction to.

I was screaming, crying, out of my bed, rocking and thrashing around, almost ripping my IV out. ANYONE who knows me at all knows that when I am in severe pain, like, even in labor with no epidural, I'm not a yeller. I may not be SILENT, but I am just not loud like that. When I get headaches, I dissappear under my jacket and cover my ears. I just don't make a scene.

OH, but I did that day. The doctor was very understanding, and said it's becoming a more common reaction to that certain medicine, and they were able to counteract it fairly well within 15 minutes, but it is the most horrible physical feeling that I can ever remember. NO ONE will EVER get a chance to give me Reglan again.

My headache has not gone away, but I now have a (somewhat) irrational fear of going back to the ER, and my local doctor...well, we won't go there. I am keeping it at bay as best as I can, and am doing okay most of the time, but Tyrone and I are looking forward to the day when my jaw issues (and therefore my headaches) are a thing of the past.

Sorry this was kind of long, and sorry to keep y'all waiting. Bottom line on my jaw is that we are looking at probably a 4 - 6 month timeline until the specialist is satisfied that he has covered all the bases and will be ready to do surgery. Needless to say, I am just anxious to put all of this behind us!