Spring is...springing!

Cheese!

Like much of the country, we've had a mild winter and spring is arriving a little earlier than usual (so we're told).  We've had some really beautiful weather and it's been great to get out and enjoy blowing bubbles, playing with chalk, hiding Easter eggs, and going for lots of walks.

She did an excellent job putting soil in the
peat pots.

A couple of weeks ago we planted some seeds and Emmy not only had fun planting, but she has enjoyed checking on them each day and watching them grow! We also planted some violas and other herbs in pots, so it's nice to have some green stuff on the front porch and the back patio. If our seeds continue to do well, hopefully before too long we'll have some zinnias, peppers, okra, jalapenos, dill, and chives to add to our yard.

Little gardener in training

  

Dandelions seem to be the state flower of Kansas, or at least the flower of Ft. Leavenworth, because man, are they everywhere! Our house is only about a year old, so the yard isn't quite established yet, allowing for lots of weeds and dandelions. Emmy enjoyed picking a few and I showed her how to put them behind her ears. Isn't she lovely?

With the lovely weather, we also had a lot of rain last week.  It rained every day Monday-Friday. Fortunately, the sun came out for a while on Thursday so we could get out and walk and play outside. Hello sun, it was good to see you!


So, we hid some Easter Eggs!

 

Spring also means new shoes for growing feet, so we took a trip to Legends (an outdoor shopping mall in Kansas City, Kansas) to add to Emmy's shoe wardrobe.  We had not walked around where most of the shops are before, but now that it was getting nice, it was a perfect late afternoon to enjoy the fresh air. Emmy was thrilled to discover the fun fountain in front of the movie theater.

It is on a timer, and when it started up, she was thrilled!

 

Trying it Daddy's way.

Showing her how to use her thumb

It's been a fun spring so far!

P.S. Sorry folks, I started this post on the 24th, but it has taken me that many days to finally sit down and upload the photos I wanted to include. I have several other posts mapped out in my head, but those will just have to wait for now, we have company in town! Much more to come soon, I promise!

The road to Kansas: Part two

We left off in part one on the road to Rome...

We arrived in time to drop Rags at the clinic (more on that later) and have dinner with DeeDee and Granddaddy before we headed to check into the hotel and get Emmy ready for bed. But, she had grandparents! To entertain her! It was not so easy to get her to settle down, for sure.  I believe somehow she had Granddaddy dramatically "crying" over who knows what, but let me tell you, she thought it was hysterical.  She still occasionally will mention that time Granddaddy was crying in the hotel. Ha!

Emmy made friends with DeeDee's scarecrows

The next morning we had breakfast together and then Emmy hung out with DeeDee while Charles and I took Rags to see Dr. P, a friend and fellow vet of Granddaddy's.  Rags had gone to the clinic to have her eyes checked out because she'd had a corneal abrasion since before Christmas that Richard had been monitoring.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be getting completely better, and he was concerned she might have glaucoma. Checking for glaucoma requires a special instrument/test that he didn't have, so Dr. P agreed to see us.  Fortunately, no glaucoma, but he did do a couple of things to her eyes (removed a little growth on her eyelid and a procedure to help the abrasion heal).  Oh, and they found she had a tapeworm, poor puppy went through a lot!  (And, as you read here, her eyes are still having trouble and she's been diagnosed with chronic dry eye. Her abrasions have healed but we will continue to treat her eyes regularly with ointments.)

That's one tired girl!

Anyways, with Rags set, we headed back to pick up DeeDee and Emmy and Granddaddy for a quick lunch.  Emmy was hilarious, at one point she put her head in her hand and looked at Richard and said "what are you thinking, Granddaddy?"  She also was definitely worn out from all the traveling, and poor pickle, she just couldn't make it through lunch, as you can see here.  We headed back to the house to gather up Rags and we hit the road! Emmy took a short nap in the car as we headed to Ikea for some shopping for our new house. 



Mary Ann and Joel had also planned an Ikea trip that day to look for nursery items, and we also scheduled to meet Sarah for one more quick hello. You can imagine how happy Emmy was to see all of them!  We wandered through, bought a few small things and then, per Emmy's request, we went to the Varsity (she'd been asking for an FO for a while). It was crazy crowded, which I know is the norm, but it was the most crowded I'd ever seen it. Emmy was tired and had fallen asleep on the way in and slept on Charles' shoulder in the crowds until we miraculously found a big booth for all of us.  We ate a quick early supper, and then had to say good-bye in the parking lot and I broke my promise not to cry. It was hard to say good-bye to two of my best girls!

We'd noticed Emmy coughing a little bit over the last day and sure enough, the coughing was getting worse and as we feared, a cold was coming on. Stink. This would ultimately lead to more puking (coughing makes her gag) and since I think her gag reflex was already on overdrive from the stomach bug, this made it worse. Of course she threw up in the car on the way home to Greenville. We were so glad to finally get back to Mom and Dad's and get out of the car.

Sunday was a relax day, thank goodness. I'd originally built Sunday and Monday into our schedule as time to stay at Mom and Dad's and visit with family in Greenville.  We went to church and to see Grandmommie.  We missed lunch after church with CC because she had gotten a cold, too, alas. Then we had a family dinner and Uncle Mike, my cousins, Jessica and Joanna and their respective husbands, Nick and Justin, came over for supper and so did one of my high school best friends, Cathy, and her husband Rafal.  It was nice to stay in and mom cooked tacos.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the evening, but it was good to see everyone one more time. (Are you sensing a theme here? Really, the last 6 months felt like one long good-bye, doing everything "one last time." )

Emmy had Pop covered in her blanket and
playing babies.

Monday our day of rest turned into a whirlwind day.  We had breakfast with Mrs. Raney, and Emmy gagged and threw up in the restaurant (puke was also a theme of this time of our lives).  Thank goodness my mom No. 2. The stomach bug had delayed us and we missed our planned trip to Grandma's.  So, we headed to visit with her and Pop on Monday morning.  Emmy had gotten to see them when she was with my parents the week after Christmas, but Charles and I hadn't seen Grandma since Thanksgiving, so it was really great to see her.  She cooked us a delicious lunch and Emmy of course got a stuffed dog that she named Furry Murray from Pop and some goodies from Grandma (stickers!). 

Showing Pop how it's done.

We had a great time with them, but soon it was time to head back to SuSu's for nap time.

Mom put Emmy down for her nap and Charles and I hopped in the car for one more quick road trip. Our dear friends Cindy and Kyle had a new baby girl, Haddie, who was born on the 9th and Eric and Erin had new baby Nora born on the 13th, and we really wanted to see these girls before we left! I knew Emmy would be sad she didn't get to see the babies (she'd been talking about holding Baby Nora) but with her having a cold, she didn't need to be around newborns. 

Snuggling with Nora.

We stopped at Cindy and Kyle's and got to spend a few minutes with them and see their sweet baby girl and her big brother Kale. They had just come home from a check-up and Haddie was sleeping soundly on her mama's chest and so I didn't even ask to hold her since she looked so content. She is precious! Then we headed back to Spartanburg to meet baby Nora.  They had gotten home Sunday so everyone was settling in at home. Poor big sis Stella was getting a cold, too, when we saw them the week before so she was not feeling great, either. We had a great, but brief, visit with them, too.

We hate to miss out on seeing these babies growing up in person, but grateful they decided to both come a little early so we could meet them before we headed west. I know their mamas were also glad they came a little early. :)

Then it was time to head "home" one more time. There was packing to be done and final preparations to be made!  That whole time I think I've blocked from my memory because I know I was just stressed. Ha!

Tuesday we had to make one quick stop on the way out of town, and then we were on the road to TN by 10:30 am. It was, as you can imagine, a stressful morning trying to get everything done, and to not to burst into tears.  I don't like to cry in front of people, and I knew if I started crying with my parents I wouldn't stop! Fortunately we all held it together pretty well. Almost. :) 

Unfortunately the first leg of the trip was very unpleasant.  About an hour in, I realized Charles was no longer behind me. Emmy was in the car with him so I immediately called, only to find that he'd had to pull off because she had thrown up from coughing in the car. Again. (I was SO tired of cleaning out her car seat. Those things are not made to be vomited in. Repeatedly.)  The location was an awkward one for stopping, or turning around, so he managed to get things under control and meet back up with me.  Poor girl, she was just so miserable with her cold. I realized she was running a fever, so we gave her some motrin. She wanted Mommy, so we switched drivers and she and I rocked out to some music for awhile until we stopped for lunch.  She finally took a long nap in the car, but we also had to stop more times than usual due to leaky diapers. I think we went through 4 outfits that day. We finally pulled into Charles' Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob's house in TN about 6 pm Central. A 5ish hour drive had taken us like 8 hours, and we were so glad to be out of the car.

Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob had never met Emmy and I had never met Charles' only cousin, Ashley, or her husband Zach and their kids, so it was lovely to see them. I just wish it were under healthier/less tired circumstances!  They had fixed us a lovely dinner and Emmy had fun playing with her cousins. Mac is the oldest and twins Avery and Ashton just turned one in November. So cute! It was wonderful to see them.

Giving Mac a hug. He looks thrilled, but really he was so good with her, showing her his toys, etc.

 Uncle Bob cooked us a delicious breakfast before we hit the road again Wednesday morning.  Destination this time was Missouri!  This was a long day of driving, but at least it was a little better. Emmy still didn't feel very well, but I think we avoided any puke.  Or maybe I just blocked it all from my memory. Ha! 

I did snap this photo as we headed into Missouri.  It's hard to see this size, but under the billboard is the Arch in St. Louis. Pretty cool!  I'd been to St. Louis before, but not by car so it was cool to see the scene as we drove through.

My Big Sis (from my sorority days) and her hubby are stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood and we planned to stop and stay with them for a couple of nights and give ourselves a break from driving.  That, as it turns out, was a brilliant plan. We didn't get in until supper time. April had been off all day so she had a delicious dinner waiting for us. 

Emmy was super happy to see "AA" and Uncle John again.  They came to SC for homecoming in the fall and they don't plan to be parents, but they love being and aunt and uncle and spoiling their nieces and nephews, by blood or otherwise, rotten.  Emmy definitely remembered eating skittles at the football game with them. Plus, they are just tons of fun so she had a great time with them. And, of course, Charles and I did, too.  They have been stationed far away for several years so we are super happy to be just a few hours from them this year.


We just hung out on Thursday, went on post so Charles could get a haircut (and they could buy Emmy guess what...candy).  We tried to stay close to home so E could nap and go to bed on time for a change.  She was feeling better, but still no where near 100%, and I think all the days of travel and being off of schedule were taking it's toll.  It was great to hang out and catch up. I had missed my big sis!

Living/Dining of our new house.

Friday morning we headed out and made the final leg of the journey to Kansas.  We pulled into the front gate just about 4 pm and headed straight for the housing office so we could let them know we were here and hopefully find out if a house was available for us.  They were soon going to close, so they gave us 2 sets of keys and let us go check out the two houses available.  One was move in ready, but had carpet downstairs in the living/dining areas, and the other had laminate floors downstairs, but we had to take it as is, or wait 10 days for it to be cleaned and painted. Ahh, decisions.  It was definitely exciting to be here, finally, and see in person where we would live. The houses were identical mirror images of each other.  Emmy was excited to be out of the car and to run around and up and down the stairs.  We spent awhile checking it out, then headed to the hotel. It was close to supper and bed time!

We chose this one! Laminate floors and took it as is.
Extra cleaning required. :)

Also, as an unrelated side note, Emmy decided as soon as we walked into the housing office that she had to go potty, and she pooped on the potty for the first time ever. And save a few accidents here and there, she's basically been potty trained since then. Hallelujah!

It took awhile to check in and find our room (the hotel on post is an old barracks building and it is an extremely confusing layout) and unload all our stuff. We got ready quickly to go to supper but Emmy was so tired and grumpy, she started crying and said she just wanted to stay there and snuggle on the sofa. Poor baby.  So, Charles went and picked up pizza and we had our first dinner in the tiny kitchenette of our hotel, and ended the evening with lots of snuggles on the sofa.

Our hotel. Well, this is the side where our room
was located. Not one of the prettier buildings on
post. :)

Thus ended our long, long trip from GA to KS!  If you actually read this far, wow, you must really be bored! Haha.

Getting Emmy back into a sleeping routine seemed to help, her demeanor greatly.  This was especially true once we were in our own house and she was sleeping in a separate room from us, as she started sleeping through the night again. (In the hotel and during our travels when we shared a room with her she would wake up and come get in bed with us from time to time.) It was great to see everyone, but it was also a relief to be "home" and start making our way in our new place. The last week on the road the combination of sickness, traveling, lack of sleep, change, all seemed to really affect her and she wasn't our usual happy, fairly-well-behaved girl.

I'll leave you with one final photo from our first weekend in KS.  We were browsing at the PX and Emmy was being particularly grabby and frustrating, shall we say. She wanted this, she wanted that. Ahh! And she insisted that she wanted a magazine. Hip Hop magazine, to be precise.  My, doesn't she have interesting taste in periodicals at 2 1/2?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our little Protestant Pickle is wearing Catholic green, but she's sitting in her orange chair, so there we go!  DeeDee gave her these jammies last summer and she wore them in warmer weather and fortunately they fit still just in time for the appropriate holiday! So cute!

We had a busy St. Patrick's Day.  Emmy took in her first parade downtown, we found baby bunnies living in the backyard when Charles cut the grass, and we topped it off with her pal Clayton's 2nd birthday party.  We're such hard partiers that awhile after the party was supposed to be over we all realized it was supper time and ordered pizza. It was a fun day!

Hope that all our loved ones are enjoying the weekend!

Waiting on the parade to start

Here it comes!

The sirens and motorcycles were a little loud for this sensitive girl.

Thomas the Train cake I made for Clayton's birthday. Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Front view (with a view from the dining to the living room in the background)

Baby bunny who has been residing in our backyard.

Checking out the bunny

Neighbors! Birthday boy Clayton, Emmy, Sophie, and Evan.

The road to Kansas: Part one

Emmy and her favorite teacher, Miss Christine,
& Miss Mary Ann. Somehow, she knew she
wasn't going to see Miss Christine again.

In all our recent updates, one post I've failed to get around to is sharing photos from our adventures between our old home and our new one!

Her last day with Miss Amy & Miss Jamie

Emmy went to school a couple of extra days the week after New Year's while we had the packers and movers there.  Here are a couple of photos from her last two days of school. Her teachers also had the kids make their Brown Bear, Brown Bear books and the last pages, when you see the Teacher and Children, had photos of all her teachers and each child in the class. Such a great memory for her!

The movers packed up the truck on Friday, January 6th, which is also when Emmy came down with the stomach bug. Yuck. We were camped out at Mary Ann and Joel's during this time and they were gracious hosts and we were so glad to be on familiar turf, but it's just hard to be sick when you aren't "home."

Sick Pickle.

We still managed to make it, though, to the baptism of our godson, Henry, that Sunday.  What a special day!  I also failed to ever post anything back during my fall updates about sweet Henry's birth, so I have failed him in my blogging as his godmother. :) 


So, here are a couple of photos from our first time meeting Henry on October 19th, the day after he was born!

Meeting Henry.  Lisa is the most beautiful new mom ever! Lucas wasn't too bad looking, either. 
But of course the sweet baby was the star!

I'm one day old!

Such a good baby, he slept until he was sprinkled

Back to Henry's baptism, we headed to Greenwood to celebrate with Lucas, Lisa, Will (our first born godson), Henry, and their family. Emmy was feeling MUCH better on Sunday morning and she and Will had a lot of fun playing. Too bad they both got a little loud during the service. At least they were well behaved for the baptism itself. Except, as we were standing at the front of the church, answering all those important questions the priest asks you, Emmy looks at me and says "Mommy, I'm ready to go to the nursery now." Nice.

But then he didn't like the water.

Henry did so well!  He slept through most of the service, until he had to be handed to Nicholas for the actual baptism, and then he wasn't too fond of the water.  Isn't he the cutest thing?

After the church service there were special refreshments during the church's usual social hour so we got to spend more time with Lucas and Lisa's family and some of our other friends who made the trip.  It was a fun day! We headed back to their house afterwards to let the kids take naps but before nap time, we had Emmy and Will sit down so we could take pictures of them in their cute church clothes. They were hamming it up!

We are going to miss living only an hour away from these boys and their parents.  We won't talk about that now because it will only make me cry!
Here are a few more photos from the day, including the cute photos of Miss E and Mr. W.

After Henry's baptism, we returned to Augusta to the comforts of Mary Ann and Joel's house, where MA (at the time about 14 weeks pregnant) was stricken with the stomach bug, and a few hours later I fell as well.  Poor Emmy I think was over it, but it made her gag reflex so sensitive that she would throw up while eating so we three spent that Monday doped up on phenegren and zofran, drinking broth, eating popsicles, sleeping and praying this would go away and not infect Charles or Joel.

Charles spent lots of time at our house patching holes and getting it ready for the renters.  Time was not on our side, so in the end we hired a painter to paint the kitchen cabinets and hall, our lovely housekeeper, Patricia, came and gave it a once over, our handyman came to fix some plumping concerns that proved to be above Charles' skill level, and we hired a landscaper to do some yard clean-up we simply ran out of time to do. Whew. Good news is we left Augusta knowing a lease had been signed and renters were moving in the following week. Yay! It was very, very hard to leave, but after all we'd been through the last few days, we were just ready to be done.

We headed to Mom and Dad's and set up camp there. Emmy and I left a few hours ahead of Charles and it was a relief to be done with that part of the journey.

 The next morning we headed to Spartanburg for a visit. We had lunch with my old boss/professor/mentor and her husband and they gave us a delightful tour of some of the new areas on campus at Wofford and caught us up on what's been going on.  We walked around campus, of course let Emmy look at all the fountains, and visited with a few other folks that I used to work with and we knew from our days as students. It was a great time!

 That afternoon we headed to Eric and Erin's house. Erin was due any day with baby Nora and we stayed with Stella while she went for a haircut.  The girls had fun playing and then we all had dinner before taking our very sleepy girls to their respective beds.  Erin was having some contractions during dinner that gave her pause and I told Charles on the way home "she is having that baby tonight." Sure enough around 11 pm she texted me that they were heading to the hospital and baby Nora was born the next morning! Yahoo!  More on that later, and happy 2 month birthday today, Nora!

Unfortunately 2 year olds move too fast for a good photo, with my camera,
but these two were being so silly and playing in Stella's bed. Too cute!

The next morning (Friday, for those of you struggling to keep up, it makes me tired remembering all of this!) we got on the road for a trip through Atlanta to Rome.  We stopped at Jane and Jeremy's for lunch with Jane and the boys.   I got a decent shot of Shepherd, Emmy, and Jasper together after lunch. Aren't they adorable?  I need to get Jane's copy, because of course her fancy camera and fancy photographer skills snapped a far better shot than my iPhone!

After lunch we said our good-byes and were back on the road again, this time a short drive as we continued towards DeeDee and Granddaddy's and detoured for a very short visit with some Army friends who were in the process of moving that very day!  We stopped at their new house just to hug necks.  David was Charles' Brigade commander and he and his wife, Sharon, have been mentors to us. Their girls are wonderful and their oldest daughter, Caitlin, just graduated from Wofford last spring.  It was nice to see them, even for a few minutes.  Their beautiful youngest daughter, Grace, has been very sick the last year and they have really been through a lot.  But their faith and strength is amazing!

Then it was time to hit the road for the last leg of our trip, next stop Rome!  More to come in part two...

March comes in like a lion

Well, we started out March with a bang! Aunt Meredith came to visit and I got the flu. That's right, the real, honest to God flu, influenza A to be exact.  Just in time for Mer to arrive, lucky us!

Sadly, this means I have n'er one photo to show for the weekend, but we all loved having her here. Emmy dragged her around the house, making her play with all her toys.  I came out of my room after showering on Sunday morning and to check in on Emmy and Aunt Mer, who were playing with blocks in Emmy's room.  She said "no, Mommy, you go back in your room." Well, we know who was the favored one here!  When Emmy was sleeping we sat around (or laid around really) and talked and watched ridiculous amounts of TV. Charles and I are now enjoying the new show "Smash" and since the recent episodes are On Demand, we re-watched them with Mer and well, now we are delighted to say she is hooked too. Ha!

I am feeling much better, but let me tell you what Internet, I paid the price for forgetting to get my flu shot.  In December I meant to ask my doctor about it when I saw him one more time, and I forgot. Then I figured I'd just go get one at Walgreen's or something since our insurance would cover it, but with Christmas and moving, etc. I forgot. And so, when I woke up Thursday morning feeling achy and feverish and like I couldn't get out of bed, I thought "oh, crap."  Fortunately Mary Ann convinced me go to get a flu test and I went Friday morning, which was early enough for me to take Tamiflu, miracle invention that it is.  And guess what? Everything "they" say about the flu is the truth. It did not start with a runny nose or congestion.  In fact, I'm not really very congested at all. I had a cough that came about Wed. late and when I coughed it made my throat hurt a lot, so much I wondered if it could be strep.  But it only hurt when I coughed, so I blew it off. But then the aches and chills and fever came. And you just don't feel like you ever want to move again.

This is when it is really hard to be away from family. I can't tell you how much I wanted my Mama on Thursday and Friday (are you ever too old to miss your Mama?).  I know she would have come and helped out with Emmy.  Folks, if you are lucky enough to live near parents or family who help with your kids, consider yourself extremely lucky.  My Mama will always be at least a couple of hours away, at least for the forseeable future.    Plus, Charles is in school and not in control of his own schedule at all, which meant he couldn't, say, stay home Friday morning for a few more minutes to get Emmy to the sitter, or come home for half an hour at lunch to pick her up from the sitter and get her down for a nap.  Sigh.

Luckily, we have found a sitter, really it's someone who offers childcare in her home and has gone through all the steps to be approved by the installation's Child Development Center. And, she lives right down the street, score!  Emmy has been twice and I will probably settle on at least one, if not two, standing mornings a week to take her there for a couple of hours, just to give myself some time to run errands or clean in peace. I can be a lot more productive on my own sometimes!

We also tried out the hourly care offered at the Child Development Center and Emmy had great fun, it's just hard to get booked in there. Their offerings fill up super fast, alas.

The last few weeks have otherwise been relatively uneventful, I'm sorry to report. Hence, the lack of blogging. I know, I know, where are the house photos you say? I'm sure everyone is dying to see more, so I promise I'll work on that.  I just need to take the photos, and I'm not so good with the photography, you see, so I sort of dread it.  But I will, cross my heart.

We're nice and settled into our house, been enjoying some unusually warm weather, along with the rest of you I suspect.  But here, warm still means windy and boy, is it windy! 60 degrees can still be too cold to stay outside for long with the wind whipping. Of course the most beautiful day so far was Thursday, when I was laid up sorry on the sofa, but Emmy and Charles got to go out side and even had visit from the ice cream truck. Yay!

Oh, yes, and how could I forget, Rags wrapped up February with a hairline fracture in her back leg after jumping out of Charles' arms.  So, now that we're a 2 day drive from her grandfather the vet, we had to make a trip to a local vet and wow, sticker shock, 300 bucks.  He did not see any fractures on the x-rays but clearly she was hurting so he gave us a few days worth of pain pills and sent the films to the radiologist, who said he/she did see some green lines, indicating a fracture.  Fortunately, she is now using her foot again so hopefully we can avoid repeat x-rays tomorrow. He did check out her eyes again and put her on a new medicine since the one corneal abrasion wasn't fully healed.  Fingers crossed for a good report and cheap visit tomorrow!

So, hopefully March will go out like a lamb!  Here are a couple of random pictures from the end of the month for you.  We'll get to work on some March photos.

Emmy insisted on eating her chili with chopsticks the other night.  Still a bit of a learning curve...

I got out of the shower and found her like this. We were doing laundry and she took two clean dresses out and put them on over her pajamas...backwards. (And underneath she's also wearing a pair of madras shorts...pictured below.)

A little light reading...

Amazing multi-tasking Dad...he can iron and entertain the toddler at the same time!