TMI!!!!! TMI!!!!!

Otherwise known as: The case of the missing IUD

After the Navy Bean was born, Wes wanted to get a vasectomy, but I wanted him to wait until she was two, just in case we decided we wanted another one. I tried going back on the pill, but since I was breastfeeding, it was too difficult, so I got an IUD. It seemed to be working just fine, with a few minor issues, but those were taken care of. For those of you who don't know about IUDs, you are supposed to check to make sure they are in place after you have your period. Apparently, when your uterus "opens" up, they can fall out. Since I breastfed the Navy Bean until she was 17 months old, I've only recently started having periods again (two and a half years without a period, why wouldn't you breastfeed?). Anyway, the IUD has "strings" on it, but they really feel more like fishing line, and that's what you're supposed to feel for. I used to check a couple times a month, but now I just check after my period. I started my last period two weeks before Wes left for deployment. I know I checked for my IUD after that. At least, I think I did. All I know is that a couple of days after Wes left, I checked for it, and couldn't find it. Well, maybe the strings got wound up, or something. Checked the next day, nothing. The day after that, nothing. Now, based on the schedule of when Wes left, I figured I was okay, but I was still a little nervous. I am happy to report that I am NOT pregnant!!!!! YAY!!!!! And there was much rejoicing!!!! But now, I know for sure that I don't want another baby. When Wes gets back, he will get that vasectomy.

Some people have asked why I don't get taken care of, but the truth is, I'm just not ready for that. I mean, Wes is in the military, so there is always (God forbid) the chance that something could happen to him. And if that happened, who's to say I wouldn't end up with Magnus Scheving and then maybe we'd want to have a baby together? Stranger things have happened. Like an IUD gone missing.

Garden delights

We love to bird watch and we have five bird feeders that we keep pretty well stocked. That gets pretty expensive. So we planted a flower garden, the kind the birds could eat.

Not all the flowers came up. Our soil is clay and it's really hard to get stuff to grow. And I forgot to fertilize, so our six rows of sunflowers are a little short. Next year we're going to till deeper and add more top soil.


But our zinnias are growing just fine. We planted petites and regular zinnias. I have seen American Goldfinches eating them, and I have seen a Ruby-throated Hummingbird eating from them as well.

I have also seem five different types of butterflies out there and I know nothing about butterflies. I should get a book about them, or something. Even the birds who don't eat flowers love our garden, because it provides shade and cover.

It also provides the Navy Bean something to smell!

Work that list

Much of my list consists of organization.

That's because, with the Navy Bean,

stuff gets all a mess.

I know it doesn't take long to take care of stuff,

but it feels like a lot of stuff,

gets overwhelming, and then, nothing gets down,

the house becomes a mess and I get depressed.

But, when I finally clean and organize,

I feel better and actually have more free time.

This is all my yarn.

Notice my highly sophisticated and chic storage compartments.

This is my storage area.
Yeah, a little small.

I finally cleaned it up yesterday.

It took about a half hour.

Eventually I would love to have something nicer to store it all in,

something I can keep in the living room.

But for now, the closet it is.

And, as you can see,

there's a reason one of my other 101 things is to crochet

a certain amount of afghans.

On another note, with Wes gone, cooking is more difficult.

When it was just me, it wasn't that big of a deal if I ate crappy.

But now, with the Navy Bean,

it's important to eat healthy,

thus the vegetarian meals.

I made a frittata this week.

It was yummy, with asparagus and broccoli.

It needed a little spice though.

But, I burned my arm on the pan handle,

after I took it out of the oven.

OUCH!

Bad timing

Enjoy this picture of the Navy Bean.

It's much more interesting than what I wrote.

So, I should have thought this through a little bit more. What was I thinking, trying to start this the same week Wes left for a 6 month deployment and the Navy Bean was sick?!? There are a few things I will probably have to change, like sending Wes 5 care packages while he's deployed. Apparently, I would have had to send the first one before he actually left, and he would have received the last one pretty much after they were home, in order to do that one. It's my list and I can tweek it if I want.

Here's the list

I'm not sure what he did, but my husband was able to fix the copy and paste issue. Yay Wes.
So, here's my list. I broke things up into categories to help my scatterbrained self. And I should add, I stole this from Beth (see sidebar because I'm so tech incompetent that I don't know how to link from here).


101 things in 1001 days, started July 1, 2010, end March 28, 2013

BLOG
1. update my blog once a week
2. update Navy Bean's blog twice a week

TRAVEL
3. visit Italy
4. go to New York city
5. renew my passport
6. visit a place of historical significance in VA

BIRDING
7. go to Eastern Shore for fall migration
8. do a tour of fisherman's island
9. go to Jericho's ditch (Great Dismal Swamp) during spring migration
10. go to First Landing State Park for migration
11. go to back bay for fall migration
12. go to false cape park during the spring
13. go to stumpy lake
14. go to ragged island wildlife management area
15. go to craney island landfill
16. go to the Chesapeake bay bridge tunnel islands
17. go birding in Virginia's mountains
18. go to one birding festival
19. go to one Audubon event
20. go to Indian River park
21. go to Northwest river park
22. go to Deep Creek Lock park
23. find out how to get a backyard habitat certificate
24. add 75 new birds to my list (currently at 141)
25. do the "owl prowl"
26. go on a pelagic trip

COOKING
27. make a banana cream pie
28. make a lemon meringue pie
29. make 1 vegetarian meal a week for 6 months
30. learn to make pad Thai
31. find a kickin' beer bread recipe
32. find a tofu recipe I really like
33. learn to make one Indian recipe
34. learn to make crepes
35. learn to make those Russian things I love but can't remember the name of
36. make my own salsa (with my own veggies)
37. find a Thai restaurant I like
38. try the Greek restaurant

READING
39. get a library card
40. use said library card at least twice
41. take Navy Bean to the library once a month for 6 months
42. read something by Stephen King
43. read something by Dan Brown: Angels and Demons, 7/1/10
44. read 50 books
45. read a history book about every continent
46. read a literature book by an author from every continent
47. read the New Testament
48. read the Old Testament
49. study the book of James
50. write a children's bird book
51. write a mom's devotional book

CRAFTS
52. crochet 12 baby afghans
53. crochet 3 lap afghan
54. sew master bath curtains
55. make Navy Bean a twin size quilt
56. make curtain for the downstairs bathroom

HOME AND GARDEN
57. plant a vegetable garden
58. landscape the front yard
59. paint one room without Wes's help
60. paint the guest bath
61. paint the water closet in the master bath
62. start composting
63. get a successful flower garden in the backyard
64. paint the bottom of the bar in living room

ORGANIZING
65. put calendar on dry erase board every month
66. take care of mail every Tues.
67. tag all the pictures on my computer
68. go to bed every night for a week with the dishes clean
69. organize play room bookshelves
70. e-mail people back within two weeks for 6 months
71. take care of e-mail immediately for 2 weeks (instead of once a month)
72. organize my yarn
73. organize my material
74. organize my tupper-ware cabinet

HEALTH
75. buy a bike
76. ride said bike
77. dance with Navy Bean 15 minutes everyday (for a month)
78. get gym membership (with a pool)
79. swim twice a week (after getting gym membership)
80. go kayaking
81. make a list of 100 things that make me happy
82. do push-ups every other day for 30 days
83. do a work-out video once a week for 6 months

FINANCE
84. have $5,000 in savings account at end of 1001 days
85. have furniture paid off
86. buy a new car
87. get quicken reconciled and keep it that way
88. put all money saved by using coupons into the savings account

MISC.
89. call a friend once a month for 6 months
90. volunteer once a month for 6 months
91. schedule a play-date once a month for 6 months
92. find out what I need to do to get a teaching certificate
93. decide where I want to go to get my teaching certificate
94. potty train the Navy Bean
95. start and finish a new character in Dragon Age: Origin
96. start and finish a new character in Dragon Age: Awakening
97. learn 20 phrases in Italian
98. find a hairdresser
99. send Wes a care package 5 times while he's deployed
100. find a babysitter
101. learn how to make a movie on the computer from photos

101 things to do in 1001 days: Updated!

I'm not dead!!!!!

I've just been busy, and boring.

But, I've decided to steal an idea from Beth's blog:

101 things to do in 1001 days

I started July 1, 2010 and will finish March 28, 2013

And now, I've discovered one reason I hate blogspot:

it won't let me copy and paste

and I'm not typing 101 things all over again!

UPDATE: I've tried everything suggested by help.

Nothing is working.

Thinking of switching to another blog.

Thankful

I

am

so

thankful!

Happy Halloween

Here is my little Garden Gnome!

She's actually sick and going to the doctor today.
But she is cute!

11 months

I'm not dead, I've just been busy. Busy unpacking and cleaning and getting to know neighbors.
And busy chasing around a little girl who is going to be one year old a month from today.

Where's my baby?

The Navy Bean is practically running everywhere.

And she climbs on everything.

She is fearless.

The Navy Bean with bubby and sissy.

She loves big kids.

She wants to be a big kid.

She's a very happy baby.

We're trying to teach her to say "stinky" when she poops.

She can say it, but doesn't say it when she's poopy.

I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast.

She is using a fork and eats a ton of food.

But, she still nurses twice a night,

which, I suppose, is my fault.

Missing you

I wish this post was going to be about the Navy Bean, who is 10 months old today. But it isn't.
I wish this post was going to be about our house, which we close on, on Monday. But it isn't.
I wish this post was going to be about something uplifting and happy. But it isn't.

This post is about my friend, Christopher Roberts.

I met Christopher my sophomore year of high school. I transferred to a large public school halfway through the year from a very tiny private school (from 20 students to 2000). Christopher was one of the first people I met. He was in my English class. And we were freaks (pre-Goth). He was small, about the same size as me. We became friends immediately. Christopher was funny, smart, loyal and a very talented artist. Many people thought we were dating because we often held hands, cuddled and hugged, but we never dated (more on that later).

We went to the same college and hung out together for our first two years. We loved each other deeply, but when we tried to kiss, it was honestly like kissing a sibling. But we still held hands, cuddled and hugged. Weird, yes, but it felt natural to us. He made sure my boyfriends treated me with respect and I made sure his girlfriends really loved him.

But then, I got engaged to a horrible man and most of my friends didn't approve, including Christopher. Add to that the fact that we both moved at the same time (him out of state) and we lost track of each other. I looked for him often, on-line, but with a name like Christopher Roberts, I had no luck. I missed him immensely, intensely and dreamed of when we would meet again. I wanted to hear what he had been doing. I wanted him to meet my new husband and my daughter. I wanted to hug my friend again. I wanted to tell him how much I missed him and loved him. But I had a very bad feeling.

And I was right. I received a message on facebook from a mutual friend of ours (someone I had also looked for but failed to find). I knew the message wasn't good. Christopher was murdered in 2007, on father's day. His first father's day. It hurts so much to know that I will never be able to tell him how much I love him. I hurts that I won't get to see him hold his little girl. I won't get to witness how much he loves the mother of his baby. But most us all, it hurts that I don't know if he knew how much he meant to me. I think he probably did. Our friend looked me up because he knew I would want to know, but also because Christopher's mother asked him to find me. I hope he knew. I hope, in his last seconds, he knew and felt the love of all the people who have known and loved him. I hope he knew that we all thought he was a wonderful, loving, loyal, thoughtful, caring person. I hope he knew that would help take care of his daughter and share pictures and stories with her. I hope he knew that even though he was alone, he wasn't alone.

I hope he knew.

Child Protective Services

I called CPS on IQ today. I talked to her on the phone and asked why IQ Jr. was screaming. She said he did that when she put him in his room so she could play WOW. Is he in his crib? No. Just in his room. With the door shut? Yes. While you play WOW? Yes, because he doesn't really take naps anymore.

He's 16 months old. He still doesn't walk. Or do anything he should be doing at that age. I hope they take him away.

She's still talking about having another one.

House update

We have a closing date for our house: Sep. 14th. It seems like it will never get here and yet, it is getting here too quickly. Every time we visit the new house, it is torture to come back to this tiny little place. We still have too much to pack and too much to do. But I can't wait!

The small part of the play room. Seriously.

Part of my kitchen. I guess the floors are down now too.

The fireplace.

The dining room ceiling.

The house. It now has a sidewalk and driveway.

I can't wait for Sep. 14th!

9 months old

My little adorable Navy Bean is 9 months old. She is so big, and smart, and funny. I just want to hold on to her, and beg her to slow down, just a little bit. Stay small for a while. Stay mommy's girl for a while. Stay a Navy Bean! She just won't listen. I love her so much.

We need to start a fan club for her at the commissary. I think at least four people stop us every week and comment about how cute and happy she is. She eats the attention up. But they are right: she is cute and very, very happy. One of her favorite games is trying to take my magazine, or my crocheting and playing tug-of-war with them as I declare, "No, that's not Navy Bean's. That's mommy's." Apparently, everything is hers.

We still have some sleeping issues, but everything else makes up for it. Besides crawling at light speed, she has begun taking little steps. She's up to three now. Part of me wants her to stop it, part of me can't wait for her to wobble across the room to me. She loves to play Peek-a-boo. All the time. For a very long time. She will play it anywhere. She loves to duck below a chair to pop back up. She loves to hide behind blankets, stuffed animals, toys, hands, anything that can hide her eyes. She loves to play when nursing, covering her one visible eye with my shirt and giggling as I cry "oh no, where is the Navy Bean? She was just right here. Navy Bean, where are you?" and then she pops up only to cover her eye again before I can finish, "Oh, there you are!"

She is fearless. She would crawl off the bed everyday if we let her. She will find a way to make it over our make-shift gates. She is amazing and I love her to death.

Which is why I haven't written about IQ lately. Her son, who is 6 1/2 months older than Navy Bean is not walking yet (among other things). This is why: IQ called me the other day and told me she is now playing WOW on her husband's computer in the living room because that way IQ Jr. can be in his pack n' play and still see her, rather than her playing in the office, when he would have to stay in his crib in his own room all day.

Navy Bean is 8 months

The Navy Bean is now 8 months old. I can't believe that much time has passed. She is so big now and more like a little girl than a little baby. I guess that's why I still like those nighttime feedings (ok, I would like ONE nighttime feeding, the rest can end).

Look at my beautiful teeth,

and not the uni brow I got from daddy.

She is such a joy to be around. Her middle name is Hope, because I hoped she wouldn't get my stress, my anxiety, my depression, but it should have been Joy, because that's what she is and that's what she gives to me.

Playing with Nana.

She can stand anywhere, using just about anything. And more and more, she lets go and just stands there by herself. And she is smart. She knows how to get back to the floor without falling. She seems to be learning so fast. She is already cruising around. Wes thinks she'll be walking by 9 months. I wouldn't be surprised, but I do wish she would slow down just a little bit.

Reading with Grandpa.

She's loves books and squeaky toys. She loves to be kissed all over and to laugh. She has two laughs, her real laugh, and her silly laugh, which sounds like a coughing machine gun. She is a VERY happy baby. She can play by herself, but loves it when I play with her.

To celebrate her 8 months here, she started climbing the stairs.

She loves classical music and the piano. Whenever she hears either, she stops what she is doing and dances. If she's crawling, that just means rocking back and forth, but if she's standing up, it's a strange combination of headbanging and the butt. She often crawls to the piano and stands up to play it. This makes me very happy.

Waving.

She also starting waving at people. Sometimes she gets very enthusiastic and waves with both hands, which is fine, because the one hander kind of looks like a heil Hitler. She wants to be a big girl so badly. And she is big. But she'll always be my little Navy Bean.

Twilight zone

I was going to tell some IQ stories, but something even weirder happened. I know, how is that possible? You guys remember Charley, right? Charley, my ex, who also happened to be the best man at Wes's first marriage. Charley, the pot-head who brought out the absolute worst in me, and I in him. Charley, who has been engaged at least 4 times, yet never got married. Yeah, well, Charley is back, sorta.



Last fall, some friends of ours from TX, who also happen to live in VA, got married. Some friends of ours who still live in TX came out for the wedding, including Charley. Some of these friends stayed with us and told us a really interesting Charley story. See, Charley was dating a new woman. Nothing new there. But, there was some drama surrounding this woman. Apparently this woman was a repeated convicted felon, for identity theft and things of that nature. Our friend, a lawyer, had run a check on her, at the request of another of our friends. Turns out, there was a lot more shady stuff than she had told Charley. My friend let Charley know, and then things got weird. Apparently, Charley's girlfriend is very powerful and has some powerful family because they threatened my lawyer friend with ruining his career. If she is so powerful, how come she spent so much time in prison?

Anyway, we hadn't heard anything from Charley in a while, but we had heard that his new girlfriend treats him very well and really seems to be good for him. So, good for him. This past weekend, Wes and I got an e-mail from Charley's girlfriend. They are getting married this year and wanted our address. I replied with the usual: congrats and here's our address. She sent me a longish e-mail telling me she had really wanted to contact me before but wasn't sure how I would feel about that. She wanted us to get to know her and judge her for who she was and not what we had heard. She loved Charley sooooooo much and he's such an awesome man. He's a deacon at their church!!!! (I have to gripe about this because they are living together and not married. Yes, I've lived with a man I wasn't married to (Charley) but I wasn't a deacon. I wasn't even going to church. What kind of shady church is this?) And they would really love it if we could come out for the wedding. It would mean so much to Charley. And they wanted to know how the navy bean was.

I e-mailed back that I'm glad that Charley is doing so well and that we really just wanted what was best for him. We wouldn't be able to make it to the wedding though, because we're building a house (we have no extra money). She sent me about 6 e-mail with pictures and offered to pay for the plane tickets. Because us being there is what Charley really wants.

What!!!!!!!

Let's look at the facts. I met Charley in high school when I was hanging out with Wes. Charley and I dated for a while. He thought I liked Wes more (I did). Several years later, Charley was the best man at Wes's wedding. Several years after that, I was living with Charley and we were talking about getting married. After we broke up, he made me promise I wouldn't ever date Wes. Several years after that, I married Wes and had a baby.

Yes, I can see why Charley would want us both to be there. We have so much history!

Why does this woman want to be my new best friend? Sounds shady to me.

I'm over here!

So I haven't been here a lot, but there's a very good reason. I am a stay at home mom. Do you know what stay at home moms do? We stay at home. The end. Although I am infinitely thrilled with the cuteness of Navy Bean and all her extraordinary powers, that's what her blog is for. I do have a few IQ stories, but, quite frankly, now that I'm a mom, her level of involvement with her son depresses me. But I do have some house news.

This is the Navy Bean's room.

This is what the house looked like yesterday.
We have a roof!

This is what it looked like last weekend, when we took the kids out there.

The kids are beyond thrilled that we're building a bigger house. They really didn't believe us at first. They thought that we were looking at houses and wanted to know what they thought (like we care what they think!). They were very excited when we told them we'd already bought it (ok, not really, we don't close until it's built, but you can't explain that to kids). Strangely, when they told their mom how huge our new house was going to be, she really didn't want to talk about it. (When she left Wes, she told him that her new husband was a multi-millionaire and they were going to build a new house. They still live in a rental and the x has told Wes they are basically living on our child support.) We are very excited and Oct. cannot get here soon enough. It is torture to come back to our little rental and cook in our tiny kitchen, knowing that soon I will have a kitchen the size of, well, a lot bigger. A lot, lot bigger. Meanwhile, hope everyone is doing well.

Snip or not to snip

Wes doesn't want anymore kids. Which I understand. He has three. He wants to get snipped. I don't think I want anymore kids either, so what's the problem. I really don't know. I love the little Navy Bean so much, and if we were younger and could wait 4 or 5 years in between kids, I would probably want more. But we're already 35. His kids are 11 and 8. And I like sleep. I want to have space in between kids though. I want to be able to enjoy my time with the Navy Bean. She's in such a fun stage right now (when she's not teething). She can interact with you. You can see the light bulbs going off in her head, often one right after another. She is trying to figure stuff out. She's getting a sense of humor. Her personality is emerging. I don't want to have to put her on hold while I take care of another baby. I don't want her to have to share me. I want to spoil her. I don't really want another kid.


But I'm terrified something will happen. The Navy Bean could never be replaced. I wouldn't even want to try. But after becoming a mom, I don't know that I could stop being a mom. I don't even know if any of this makes any sense. I told Wes we should wait until she's two. It seems silly though, to wait, when I know I don't want another one. Suggestions on why him getting snipped freaks me out?

Catch up

Guess who got teeth yesterday?

So, the Navy Bean sprouted two teeth yesterday. She had been teething for about a week and doing pretty well. Wes left today for 10 days. Today, the Navy Bean has been waaaaaay fussier than she was before the teeth came through. I hope that ends quickly, otherwise one of us might be dead before daddy gets home!

Everything has gone through for the house and they will start building this week, if it stops raining. We went and picked out colors Sat. and then my head exploded. It took FOREVER and we liked most of the stuff in the model. But, this means by Oct/Nov. we should have plenty of room for company from all over the world!

Now, I just have to clean the house and start packing. I figure I will kill two birds with one stone by baby-proofing/packing at the same time!

6 months

My little Navy Bean is 6 months old. And she's not so little any more. At the moment she is not eating because she is getting teeth!!! But, when she does eat, it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Don't you just want to kiss those little rolls of fat?

She's learning so much new stuff it's hard to keep track of. She can't actually pull herself to standing yet, but she's working on it. She so wants to be a big girl. I am amazed at how smart she is. She knows the words "kiss" and "milk" and will respond accordingly. Her kisses are wet and sloppy, but they are the best kisses I have ever received.

Her smile lights up my day, no matter how little sleep we have gotten. My life has been so enriched by her, I could never imagine being without her.

I love her little goofy faces. I love it when she gives me a hug and a kiss without me asking. I love holding her in my arms. I love reading to her. I love taking walks with her. I love her.

She loves music. She loves the sound of the piano and was thrilled when she could make noise on it too. She loves classical music. She loves the drums. I hope she continues in this love.

Did I mention that she cracks me up?

It's been a wonderful 6 months. I love my Navy Bean more than I thought possible. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring (besides crawling, walking and more teeth).

Note to Wes

When one of the ushers at church tells you your wife looks great and can you believe she just had a baby, the correct response is NOT, "it's been 6 months."

Moron.

The builder accepted our offer as it was. We have an appointment with the loan officer this week. We should know something by Wednesday and hopefully, start "building" by Friday.