Catching up again.

I need to work on posting more than once a week, even though I'm not doing a whole lot these days.  Last Monday was a comp day from work, so no work.  Monday evening was our penultimate Bradley Childbirth class.  Tuesday was my (now) weekly appointment with my midwife followed by Ryan's PTSD therapy group.  I get a good bit of cross stitching done during the drive to/from Tucson and during his hour and a half long group meeting.  Wednesday was a normal day with work in the morning and naptime in the afternoon. And I don't have to go to Pregnancy PT anymore until after my maternity leave is over!!  My midwife was concerned about me not getting enough sleep and I was concerned that I keep sleeping through my PT alarm and missing PT because of not getting enough sleep, so she wrote a note recommending that I do activity on my own and it was approved by the Army powers that be!! 

Thursday was a normal day until evening. We went for a family walk after dinner and partway through our walk, Ryan started having chest pains and shortness of breath. Of course, we finished our walk (he's as stubborn as I am) and then I took him to the ER.  K came and picked Robert up from the ER and took him home and got him to bed and stayed with him until I got home around 1 in the morning.  All the tests they ran on Ryan came back negative for anything heart-related, but they kept him overnight for more tests and observation.  He was discharged mid afternoon on Friday (didn't have to go to work on Friday since I'd been up so late Thursday night). 

Saturday we did our weekly grocery shopping and then pretty much just relaxed and watched the NASCAR race.  Sunday was church in the morning and then just a relaxing afternoon since we had already done grocery shopping for the week.  I did some laundry and got some cross stitching done.  Monday was back to work for my few hours in the morning and then home to take a nap after lunch.  Monday evening was our final Bradley class and K was able to come with us. She's my assistant labor coach.  After Ryan and K taking a quiz about things coaches should know, we had a labor rehearsal and did a few practice contractions in a variety of positions (the "contraction" was a bag of frozen corn placed somewhere on my skin to make me uncomfortable and then I had to relax through it) and then reviewed some of the different pushing positions. 

Yesterday was another appointment with my midwife, and Baby Boy decided to play tricks and move around so they had a hard time finding his heartbeat.  But it was found eventually, and is nice and strong!  After that appointment was lunch at Waffle House and then to the VA for Ryan's group.  Late afternoon was when the surprise occurred.  My brother flew from MI to visit for a week, and we were able to keep it a surprise from Robert.  Robert sure was surprised when Uncle Rick picked him up from Child Time yesterday afternoon instead of Mommy and Daddy!!  I had put some chicken breasts in the crock pot with cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup and then I made some rice, so we had a nice dinner of chicken and rice.  After dinner, however, Ryan was hurting pretty bad again (it had been gradually getting worse throughout the day), so back to the ER we went.  Rick stayed with Robert.  After finally signing the admitting papers for Ryan (it took longer because they took directly to the back, bypassing triage), I headed home to allow Rick to get to his hotel and get some sleep.  Of course we ended up visiting for probably an hour after we got home, but that's all good.  The hospital not only kept Ryan overnight again, but they transferred him to a hospital in Tucson for more tests that they're not able to do here in Sierra Vista.  You see, we don't have a "real" hospital here – it's the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center – so they end up transferring a lot of patients to Tucson for various things.

This morning was unit photos for work, and of course, formation was earlier than normal.  This required me to get up earlier and get Robert up and ready early and bring him to Child Time on my way to formation.  Between getting up early this morning and not much sleep last night, I'm about to go take a nap. Thankfully I have an awesome command team and they understand family stuff, so I was able to get the rest of the day off to sleep and go to Tucson at some point.  Hopefully Ryan gets discharged today since tomorrow is Robert's birthday.

Back to work

I was back to work this past week after being gone for 4 weeks (2 weeks of TDY for school  and 2 weeks of leave) but it was a pretty short week.  Monday I was only there for about an hour and a half before I headed home to change and head to Tucson with Ryan.  He had one of his PTSD groups and then we headed to our hotel and got checked in.  Then we went and got some dinner before heading to our hospital tour at the University Medical Center.  A lot of their standard procedures are things that we want anyway, so that's a good thing!  Things like putting the baby on mom's chest immediately after birth, all post birth procedures are done bedside with mom, and the baby stays in mom's room 24 hours a day.  There were a few things we got some clarification on with our midwife at our appointment Tuesday morning  (hence the hotel room – hospital tour got done at almost 9 and then midwife the next morning), but overall we got a warm fuzzy from our tour.  The only complaint I had about the tour was the group size – there were probably 15 or so couples and that was WAY too many.

So Tuesday morning we saw our midwife and she did the Group B Strep test.  I'll probably find out the results at next week's appointment (yes, I'm to that point where I'll be going every week now).  She also checked me and the report is that my cervix is softening.  No other progress yet, but softening is a good thing.  After we were done with that appointment, we headed to the VA for Ryan's other weekly PTSD group.  After we got his travel pay, we headed home just in time to get Robert from Child Time and then head to his school for a curriculum meeting with his teacher.  K watched him both Monday night and this evening.  She's such an awesome friend and Robert loves spending time with her.

Wednesday was back to work, but since I'm only working half days, I left at lunchtime.  Thursday and Friday were the same – just the morning was spent at work.  I did get some supply stuff done that needed to be done, so that was a good thing.  In the afternoons, I've been taking a nap and pretty much just relaxing.

We were going to take Robert to the park on Saturday (yesterday) but the evening monsoon thunderstorm came in the late afternoon.  Of course, we didn't get any rain, but there was plenty of thunder and lightning, so we opted against the park.  The monsoons should be done soon.  Last evening we went for a nice family walk after dinner and that was a lot of fun.  We're going to try and start doing that more often. 

This morning it was nice sleeping in some – both the guys were up before I was.  We had a relaxing morning before heading to church where we had to say goodbye to our Intern Pastor Beth.  She's been here for the past year and heads back to seminary school now for her last year of school.  It's been wonderful having her here and we're going to miss her.  After church, we headed to Ray's for lunch and then did a little bit of grocery shopping before heading home to watch the NASCAR race. 

I got quite a bit of stitching done this week, and that was nice.

Today's high:  90
Current:  76

The past week

Well, I had a whole blog typed up yesterday recapping my week of leave, but LiveJournal decided to be retarded and didn’t even save it as a draft before giving me an "Unauthorized" error when I went to post it.  So, suffice it to say, this past week was a week of relaxation and accomplishment.  Robert started 2nd grade on Monday and has survived his first week of school for the year.  I had a chiropractor adjustment on Monday.  And I got a lot of work done in the guest room which will soon be part guest room and part nursery.  I have a huge pile of stuff to donate to Goodwill and my old computer desk has been Freecycled to a new home.  There is still some work to be done in there, but we’re a lot closer to being able to put a crib and a dresser in there for Baby Boy than we were a week ago!  Of course, actually getting the stuff to Goodwill will help immensely, and we have a bunch of books that we’re going to try to donate to the library (they have an area where used books are for sale and the proceeds go to the library) and if not there, then Goodwill. 

Today we were Greeters at church, so we had to be there early.  It’s kind of nice getting to greet everyone once in a while, but this morning I should have put a sign on my stomach that said "5 weeks to go" because just about everyone asked me how much longer.  There were some that were like "you’re still pregnant?"  Um, yeah.  It sure looks that way, doesn’t it?  After the service we went to KFC for lunch and then home since we did grocery shopping yesterday.  I did a little more work in the guest room and got the one bookcase moved that we wanted moved.  I had to move books from the floor and then take the books off the bookcase before rotating it 90 degrees and putting all the books back on it.

And I got a whole lot of cross stitching done in the past week.  That was kind of nice.

Today’s high:  87
Current:  76

Family Vacation – Day 4 and the weekend

I tried to post Day 4 on Friday after we got home, but LiveJournal wasn’t cooperating.  Friday morning after breakfast, we finished getting packed and got checked out of the hotel.  Then we headed to Sabino Canyon.  We took the 45 minute narrated shuttle ride and it was interesting learning about various rock formations and nature stuff in the canyon.  I finally learned the names of lots of the trees that we have around here.  It was a really pretty day, other than that it was hot.  But that’s summer in the desert.  After we were done with the shuttle ride, we looked around the Nature Center for a while and then Ryan chatted with one of the volunteers in the gift shop/information center for a while before we headed out.  We stopped at Hooters for lunch to conclude our vacation.  Our family vacation consisted of history (Pima Air & Space Museum), fun (the water park), and beauty/nature (Sabino Canyon).  It was a good vacation and the three of us had a great time, but it was nice to get home Friday afternoon as well.

Friday evening we headed to Robert’s school for Open House and found his classroom and got to meet his teacher.  She seems really nice and Robert seemed to like her.  Of course, after he had looked around the classroom for a little bit, he found the bins of books and picked one out and sat down on the carpet and started reading.  Then we couldn’t leave until he was done.  Not that I’m complaining about that at all.

This weekend was a pretty relaxing weekend.  K and I went for a 2.4 mile run Saturday morning.  Ryan and Robert went to help out at the bake sale that the Association of Vietnam Veterans of America was putting on.  Ryan’s a member of that and wanted to help out.  While they were gone, I went to the school for rehearsal for our church service.  Rehearsal lasted about an hour and a half and when it was done, I headed to Walmart where the bake sale was going on and hung out for a while.  Robert was being a really big help, so he got to stay and keep helping and I headed to Fry’s where I bought about $20 worth of groceries for just over $6!  Then it was home to get those put away and after the guys got home, we headed out to the commissary on post for the rest of the groceries we needed (I had coupons, and lots of free ones for the stuff at Fry’s).  One example of how the commissary has MUCH better prices than out in town – an eggplant at Fry’s cost $3 or so.  It was $1.30 at the commissary!!  And yes, I bought an eggplant.  After we got home from post, I finished up the laundry – did 5 loads throughout the day – and did some cross stitching.

This morning was our church’s Backpack Blessing/Community Sunday, and we had a joint service with the Universal Unitarian church.  The joint choir helped lead worship, and that’s what yesterday’s rehearsal was for.  It was a really nice service with a potluck brunch afterward with TONS of food.  That’s what my eggplant was for.  I got up at 0530 and was in my kitchen by 6 this morning and I made 2 eggplant quiches.  It was my first time making a quiche and my first time doing anything with eggplant, but the quiches turned out really good and I got lots of compliments from people that got to try it at the potluck!!  After we had eaten our fill and visited, we headed back to post.  Ryan lost a screw out of his glasses and so we went to the optical shop to get that fixed and then to the barber shop for the guys to get haircuts.  Once done on post, we came home and relaxed for the rest of the day.  We watched the NASCAR race and I stitched some.  Ryan grilled steak for dinner and I made mashed potatoes and baked beans to go with.

Today’s high:  87
Current:  76

Family Vacation – Day 3

This morning was fun.  We went down to breakfast and then came back to the room to finish getting ready for the day.  I gave Robert his swim suit and told him to put it on and Ryan and I got our suits on as well.  Robert thought we were just going to the pool, but I said no when he asked if he could get his pool toys.  I packed our towels and change of clothes in the backpack, along with sunscreen and we headed down to the van.  Poor Robert had no idea what was going on or where are we going.  He’d ask where we were going and we’d say to the van.  LOL  We drove about 1/2 hour to the north side of Tucson to the Breakers Water Park.  Yes, there’s a water park here in the middle of the desert.  Robert sure was excited when he finally figured out where we were going!  We got in – I had paid for admission through a deal with Groupon and our admission had only been $9 each instead of the usual $20.95, so it was a really good deal.  In fact, if you’ve never heard of or checked out Groupon, you really should.  You can get some awesome deals on stuff!  If you sign up, make sure you give me credit for a referral. 

We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the water park playing in the big wave pool and going down the water slides (well, I didn’t do those thanks to Baby Boy).  Even Robert had fun on the big people slides after the first few times to get over being scared.  We played in the kiddie play area for a while as well and had a great time!!  And despite it being the last week of being open during the week (it goes to weekends only through Labor Day), there wasn’t a whole lot of people there.  One of the strangest things I saw was a lady getting skin cancer sunbathing.  Ok, nothing wrong with sunbathing at a water park, and there were others doing it.  But this lady was laying right at the edge of the wave pool on the pool bottom, not on a chair.  Very strange.  But whatever.

After we were done at the water park, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch on our way back to the hotel.  Once back to the hotel, I cross stitched for a while and Robert and Ryan played games on the phone and computer respectively.  After quite a while, we went to get a light dinner/snack.  Our first stop was Wendy’s, but while waiting in line to order, the cashier behind the counter got upset about something and cuss words were coming out of his mouth.  I don’t care what the situation was, that is not appropriate behavior/language for someone working to serve the public, especially if there are families present.  We left, and I explained to Robert that we were leaving because he wasn’t using good language.  So we went next door to McDonald’s and had great service and a super clean restaurant.  Then it was back to the hotel and Robert got a bath and I got more stitching done while Ryan played on his computer.

Today’s high:  103
Current:  91

Family Vacation – Days 1 & 2

I’m on leave for 2 weeks and next week Robert goes back to school.  Am I really going to be the mother of a 2nd grader next Monday???  Wow!!  So we decided to take a little vacation this week and play tourists in our local area.  We headed up to Tucson for a few days.  Yesterday started with a midwife appointment for our 33 week check up on Baby Boy.  Robert sure thought it was neat hearing his baby brother’s heartbeat (or heart BEEP, as he calls it).  Baby Boy is doing well – nice strong heartbeat, growing well, and head down.  After we were done there, we headed to the VA hospital for one of Ryan’s PTSD therapy groups.  Robert was really well behaved during the hour and a half – he played his Leapster for a bit and then Angry Birds on my phone.  I cross stitched.  Oh, we ate lunch at the VA canteen (cafeteria) before Ryan’s appointment.

After we were done at the VA, we headed to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit before heading out to do a little bit of shopping and then dinner at On the Border.  What a great dining experience!  We had awesome service and the food was really good as well.  The manager even came out and talked to us for a bit, and having heard from our server that it was our first visit there, he gave us his business card and a coupon for a free queso appetizer on our next visit!  How’s that for customer service!!  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Today, after breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Pima Air and Space Museum and spent a good part of the day walking around and looking at all the aircraft and other exhibits in the various hangars and other buildings.  We took the tram tour of all the aircraft outside.  It lasted about an hour and 20 minutes and was really informative.  I did get airplaned out a little, but it was still really interesting.  Once we were done there, we were all hot, tired, and thirsty, and Ryan and I were both hurting – his knees and my feet.  We came back to the hotel and got changed and went and played in the hotel pool for a while.  The hot tub water was hot, but the jets weren’t working.  The heat was still nice, though.  And I just remembered that I was going to ask about it at the front desk.  I have to try and remember tomorrow morning.  Robert swam around the pool quite a bit, mostly with his arm floaties on, but just a little bit without them.  After a little bit back in our room, we went to Chuck E. Cheese’s for supper.  We all had a lot of fun and won enough tickets for Robert to get a velcro dartboard game.  Then it was back to the hotel for the evening.  I got some knitting done because I was too tired to stitch.

Today’s high:  100
Current:  92

Fathers Day 5K recap and my 2 weeks at Ft. Bliss

I’ll start with the 5K I ran on Saturday.  It was the Fathers Day 5K put on by the local running club here in town.  It was originally scheduled for Fathers Day, but because of the Monument Fire, it was postponed.  K and I arrived shortly after 0530 and got registered – and surprise! We got t-shirts!  I wasn’t expecting that.  The course went around most of the perimeter of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery and was on dirt trails.  It was only 2.76 miles, but was still a nice run!  It took me 41:36 to complete it, but I still ran more than I walked – even at 32 weeks, 4 days pregnant!!  I got lots of comments (and ALL positive) from the other runners there, so that was nice.  I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with negative.  They did awards for the top 10 males and females overall, and K placed 8th overall for the females and got a cool homemade "medal" for it!!  It was a ceramic plaque with a necktie and a tool and the name of the race and the place on it.

The past two weeks (since the 18th of July) I was at Ft. Bliss, TX, for a 2 week PBUSE course.  PBUSE stands for Property Book Unit Supply Enhanced.  It’s a program we use in supply for tracking all of our property book items.  It was a really good course with lots of hands-on stuff and practical exercises.  I was on the only one in the class to get a 100% overall score – leave it to the bandsman to beat out all the real supply people (like that’s their only job in the Army is to do supply).

Over the weekend between the two weeks, Robert and Ryan rode to visit me on the Harley!!  Robert had a ton of fun going on a super long ride with Daddy, and they got lots of positive comments when they stopped places along the way.  Friday when they arrived, we walked to the PX, stopping to look at all the tanks and stuff in front of the museum on the way.  The PX there is reportedly the biggest one in the Army.  It was HUGE!!!!!!  We walked around the PX, looked at all the little shops and kiosks in the "mall" area outside the PX, and the shops in the areas around the PX on the outside.  We ate at a burger place and they had really good burgers.  Saturday morning we headed to the El Paso Zoo where we met up with the S family.  Their son J is one of Robert’s really good friends from school.  They had moved back to El Paso at the end of the school year as the dad got a transfer from the Border Patrol.  They’re from El Paso originally, so back home with family.  Robert sure was excited to see J again, and we all had a great time walking around the zoo.  Saturday afternoon we played in the hotel pool for a while before heading to my friend D’s house for dinner and visiting.  We had hamburgers and hotdogs and all kinds of other yummy food with the three of us and D and her daughter M.  D is a friend from Iraq who retired in El Paso from the Army.  Sunday morning we got the bike packed and the guys headed home to finish out their 750 mile round trip.  The rest of Sunday I got laundry done and a little bit of grocery shopping at the commissary.

It was nice to be back home with my guys Friday evening and now we’re looking forward to our "Tourists in our Home Town" vacation in Tucson this week.

Here’s a pic of me after the 5K on Sunday.  Baby Boy is growing!!