A. Rae's Adventures

Our little A. Rae is growing so much! She has learned so many wonderful things in just the past few days. Allow me to enumerate.

1. The Nutritional Value and Delectableness of Certain Foods

We have been truly blessed with such a great eater. No matter what it looks like, she eats it. And will mostly always respond to the question of, "How is it?" with a resounding, "Nummy, nummy, nummy." Spinach, radishes, fish, salad...you name it, she will eat it.

A couple days ago, she crawled up to me and declared, "Nummy, nummy," with no prompt from me. I didn't think too much of it at first. (She is often finding crumbs of yesterday's meals on the floor. I know, I know. I need to sweep them up more. The following story has really driven this home to me.) I usually check what she is eating. This thing seemed a bit big for her mouth. So I opened it up to find a giant MOTH!! in her mouth. All black and powdery. Yuck! Why did she think it was "nummy"? It took a couple good wipes with a paper towel to remove the menacing residue of this unsuspecting insect. (I have also caught her trying to stick a live fly in her mouth. Where does she think up these things???)

2. Knowledge is Power

Sign language has been a lifesaver in our home and I highly recommend it. It has been a long process (I started signing "milk" at 3 months.), but the rewards are sweet. Slowly, she has been able to learn and sign properly many words.

• Milk
• Please
• More
• Food
• Drink
• Thank you
• Yes

And just two days ago we can add to the list

• Potty!!

We are currently potty training her and have been doing so since she was 7 1/2 months old. Crazy, but so great! I can't handle poopy diapers, and this way, I hardly have to deal with any! So her being able to sign "potty" is a great step in the right direction. She is so smart! Now she will be able to tell us when she has to go or doesn't.

3. Children Are Amazing (Especially Mine)

I sing a song to A. Rae every once in a while about the alphabet and the different sounds each letter can make. As I sang it to her yesterday she repeated the sounds for A, B, D, F, M, N, P, T, and Y! She is only 13 months! Some of them were just attempts, but others were implicitly clear! We certainly have a smartie on our hands. Man, I love being a mom.

Deployment, Here We Come

So we found out today that the Hubby is deploying, and I don't think it is like the last time we found out he was deploying and then 3 days later they said, "Just kidding." They told him at the beginning of June that he would be flying to Afghanistan on July 8th. We thought, at the time, it would be perfect. We could go home for the family reunion the end of June. I could just stay there with my mum for a couple months and not have to buy another plane ticket. He would only have to be gone for 3 months. He could get the deployment patch and a chance at career advancement. It would be perfect!

Then they said, "No." The rest of the population would take a sigh of relief at knowing he wouldn't have to go overseas to the war. But from an Army perspective, it was lame. The Hubby would have to stay at a desk for at least 3 more months doing a job he doesn't enjoy and not utilizing the skills he worked so hard to get. He felt mistreated--as the top graduate in his battalion at university, 127th graduate in the nation, top of his platoon in IBOLC, straight through Ranger School with top marks, and great recommendations from the colonel he worked throughout university, why weren't they using this amazing soldier? Why was he sitting at a desk doing exactly the thing he didn't sign up to do? We felt cheated and mistreated. Like little toddlers (or my cute little A. Rae as I am coming to find out), we were throwing tantrums.

But as the cliche goes, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes even 20/15. (That does mean it's even better, right?) A few days before the Hubby was told he was deploying the first time, we had arranged for his brother to come and visit us in addition to going to their older brother's to help with some yard work. The Hubby's oldest brother was recently diagnosed with his second round of cancer. They were unable to get the projects from last summer done because of his personal battle, and this announcement made it impossible for them to catch up on that list this season. So we decided to make the trip and help out. Unfortunately at the time, the deployment had been sprung on us and the Hubby wasn't going to make it for the first 2 days of work. His youngest brother had already bought plane tickets and I can see how it was frustrating to learn about the deployment. With the fear of offending others by not having the Hubby there to help, I prayed that somehow it would work out.

Now I know that God answered my prayers. And then I complained about it. He delayed the "perfect" deployment, not cancelled it. The Hubby was able to work his little heart out at his brother's, and he will still get the patch, the pay, the platoon, and the promotability brought on by deployment. Visiting my mum will be a bit trickier, but it will still work out. I have to say I feel much better about this announcement of a deployment. Not so nervous.

So with a bit more head shaking from above, we move forward into this next great adventure (that really does seem to be an answer to prayers). Now I ask for prayers that my love will return home to us safely.

Digging in the Dirt...I Mean Rocks

A. Rae makes me laugh. This is why.

Oh man. She is a cutie. 

We sure love digging in the rocks.

Loving the Learning

It is so fun to watch my little girl learn and grow. I had an experience on Thursday of last week that filled me with love for her and for being a mom.

She did such a good job with me as we went about doing errands. Her hair is getting so long that I wanted to get some clips to keep it out of her eyes. I purchased some from the dollar store. One clip was already broken, but they didn't have another package and I thought, "They are just a dollar." So, purchased they became.

When we got home, I sat A. Rae on the floor, got the clips out of the bag, and pulled off the broken one to discard of it. She held out her hand for the package, signed "please", and I gave it to her. She looked at it for a second, then held out her hand again, signed "please" again, and I realized she wanted the clip. I handed that to her as well and she immediately started to stick it into the empty spot on the package.

I know it is so simple, but I was overcome with love and joy for this beautiful girl who is so smart and understands so much. What a pleasure to watch her learn seemingly insignificant things like this every day. I don't want to miss out on these moments.

I love being a mom!

Where We Live

So, my sisters have been begging for some photos of our new place. I have finally finished all the projects I thought were necessary to complete before I let them look at it. Now let me offer a precursor to my divulgement. When we moved to New York, we were so totally set on living in one of the fantastic looking houses on post. These photos are credited to www.army.mil.

See what I mean. Nice. Big. Close to work, friends, grocery store. Perfect for a potentially growing family. The only problem was, we had 2 months to be on the waiting list, then we would drop to place 97. The likelihood of getting a home on that list was pretty much impossible. Originally we thought we would just live in the hotel for the 2 months. Sounds like fun, right? That didn't seem like the best idea after a week of microwavable meals and drying cloth diapers on the extra bed. This entire time we were on the hunt for a place to rent just in case we didn't get a house on post.

In the midst of our searching, I found a HUGE house on 8.5 acres of land in a cute little town we thought would be fun to live in. Just for kicks one night, I said we should go search it out. We didn't find the house that was $2300 a month to rent, but we did find a little home that we thought could be fine as a month to month place until we got on post. After looking at it closer though, we realized there just wasn't going to be enough room for our trailer that had our entire house in it. Then, as a miracle, the owner told us of another place he said had plenty of parking.

We arranged to see him the next day and take a look. When we walked in, the place smelled terrible!!! Like rotten eggs and something dead. There was junk everywhere, old clothes molding in the tub, stains from the toilet on the floor, carpet bloches I didn't want to think about too hard, and food left in the fridge and cupboards from the occupants who had packed up (I use that term very loosely) and left 2 months prior.

I thought, "I can stay here for a month and half, but there is NO WAY I can live here for the next 3 years. This place is disgusting!!!" So, begrudgingly, we lived out of boxes and searched every day for an alternate place of residence. I probably drove for 36 solid hours looking at places. And all of them were overpriced, small, or falling apart. Occasionally the thought would come to me, "What if we stayed in the little green house." Then I would look around and see this:

No place for dining comfortably. A long hallway for a kitchen. Cupboards that I can only reach with a stool (That may or may not be a problem anywhere though.)

Small. Cramped. Small. 

No toilet paper holder! No counter space. Hardly any storage. Oh, and did I mention stinky. 

You can't tell from this picture, but the bathroom smells, no matter what I do to combat it. 

There is no closet in this room. Ya. No closet!!

If you look closely, you can see my little girl asleep in her port-a-crib. 

And the shape is a little funky. 

I know. I know. It is not that bad. I think I was just being super picky. I had set up in my mind that we would be getting a house with 3 bedrooms so that if I wanted to become crafty, I could. I wanted small niceties like a toilet paper holder, a garbage disposal, usable internet, screens on the windows, a heat vent in my bedroom. 

But the Lord is really good at what He does. Slowly he helped me to see that this small place was actually everything we were looking for. Once I let go of pride and decided to make it our home, we found it was just the right amount of secluded, we could put our desk in the kitchen (a placement we had been dreaming of having for a while now), the Hubby could build an aquaponics system, we could grow a garden, and our landlord is wonderful to work with. 

So, pride aside, and I'm sure with a little head shaking from above, we kept the place we originally found. And without further ado, this is now our home. 

A. Rae's room.Ya, she's a doll.

We built this closet. Much more accessible than the one I kept hitting my head on. 

The boxes hold A. Rae's toys. 

We make shifted a separator between the tile and the carpet. And I stained the doors and frames. 

This is now a storage closet.

This chalkboard is painted to the wall. I touched up the black back spray and added the frame. The totes hold our recycling. 

It is nice to have a place for everything to go in the entryway. Easier to drop it all when you get in.

I love, love, love our photos of Bear Lake on the wall.

Baking jars: idea courtesy of the Hubby.

I like my washing materials holder that is really a cake stand that is really a flower pot that is really neat. :)

The Hubby moved the microwave above the stove. Much more counter space that way, even though I hated!! the look of it at first. 

We needed extra space for our food, but the pantry was no big deal to purchase. And there is my crafty calendar. I got to be crafty after all, even with only 2 bedrooms. 

Here it is! The desk in the kitchen. It is so nice when someone needs to work on something and still wants to be a part of the conversations, which are always in the kitchen for some reason. 

Love our family tree wall. 

The house is not so small now. It actually is 130 sq. ft. smaller than our last place, but feels so much bigger because of the open concept. 

I love our area rug. So glad we had an excuse to buy it. No data analysis charts necessary to convince the Hubby of the need for this purchase. 

I stained and painted those stairs. The little girl who lived here before drew all over the side of the stairs, so they became white. Let's just say this project took a while. Everything was bare wood before.  

I'm going to get a sticker to go around the temple picture that says, "I love to see the TEMPLE". Idea courtesy of Mum. 

(Notice the toilet paper holder?)

No bathroom of mine would be complete without a few rubber ducks.

Easy storage space solution.

The stairs lead up to our room. It is kind of a loft, sort of....

Our patriotic wall. 

We built a closet like the one in A. Rae's room. 

And that's that. What a difference an attitude can make (and some good pins from Pinterest). Really we just needed to make it our own. Now when people come to visit, they say, "Wow! Your house is really nice." We always agree.