Please pardon the long absence. Y'all know I don't do well with blogging when I'm working. And we've been moving. And it's been a crazy few months. I kept intending to back date updates and well, life got in the way.
We're now residing in Colorado, as of mid December. We had about 4 days with our household goods before we headed South for the holidays, so it was a crazy week. As the few of you who read this blog probably know, we flew out on Christmas morning, so Santa came on Christmas Eve. Charles called in the special military clause, and Santa of course accepted and agreed to come a day early. Emmy got a baby doll car seat (her number one gift), books and a sled from Santa, plus her stocking with some movies for the trip, bubble bath, crayons, and her favorite stocking stuffers, clementines and an apple. Seriously, she loved that Santa gave her clementines.
Needless to say it was a strange holiday season for us. I didn't cook or bake. No one came over for dinner or brunch or anything. We didn't go to any holiday parties. We were so busy getting ready to move, packing out, and saying good-bye before we left Kansas. Then we arrived here and were trying to visit preschools, get ready for the movers and find our way around. It finally felt like Christmas when we got to my Mom and Dad's! But Emmy had so, so much fun this year looking at Christmas lights and decorations and "activity" scenes (nativity) scenes). She was so excited when we finally got to our new house so she could decorate the 4 foot artificial tree. We had to put it up as soon as we got to our new house and we were up at 6 am the next morning cramming as many ornaments as she could onto the little tree. It all makes me more excited for next year with her when we can go all out for Christmas again.
We spent a few days in the Upstate with my family. My sister was down for Christmas so we had a good time with her. Then Charles and I headed for our annual New Year's weekend with our college friends. After 3 days of R&R with those crazy fools, we came back to my parents' and headed out early the next morning to Alabama to visit Beth and Griffin and to meet our new baby niece, Caroline, who was born Dec. 23rd. A little Christmas baby! DeeDee and Granddaddy met us there for a quick visit and we celebrated Christmas all together. Of course we are all in love with the newest family member, and Emmy loved holding her and loving on her...and playing with all the baby stuff. Emmy's love of all things baby/baby doll related has not lessened since I last updated, and she spent oodles of time putting her baby dolls in Caroline's car seat, bouncy seat, etc.
From AL we headed to south GA to celebrate with the rest of Charles' family on the family farm. Emmy was delighted with the attention from Uncle Robert, Aunt Mary Lou, and Jenny and a few other friends and relatives that came to visit, and she loved running around, picking up pecans and pine cones. My mom's extended family is very scattered, and while we did see some of my dad's extended family on occasion growing up, to go back to the place where Charles' dad, aunt and uncle and grandfather grew up is always a little awe inspiring to me, to have that sense of family history.
From Blackshear we headed back up towards Augusta where Emmy and I dropped Charles off for his 2 week course back at Ft. Gordon where he learned, in his words, how not to get fired from his next job. Ordinarily, we would have headed back to our new home, but there was really no point in Emmy and I flying home without Charles to a new place where we didn't have any roots yet, so we opted to stay around. We spent a couple more days with my parents and Mom took some time off to hang out with Emmy, which helped me get my work done. She and I did go back to Augusta for a long weekend, stopping to see Aunt Lisa, Uncle Lucas, Will and Henry along the way. We spent a couple of nights in Daddy's hotel room and a couple of nights with Aunt Mary Ann, Uncle Joel, and Josh. Her old baby sitter came over one night to watch her and Josh, which she loved, and that meant the grown-ups had a date night with Pam and Steph. Woohoo! It was a good visit, though never long enough. I sang for the funeral of a dear man who was a longtime member of our church there, we visited with other friends and we went to church on Sunday. Next time I need to wear a shirt that says "we're just visiting this time, we aren't moving back." Everyone keeps expecting us to come back immediately, which won't really even be a possibility probably for at least 4 years. And while we miss our friends and church, it has been nice to experience Army life on other installations.
Emmy and I went back to G'Vegas for the next week and spent more time with Grandma and Pop, CC, and lots more friends and family in the Upstate. Even though we had a long visit, it is still never enough time to make it everywhere we want to go and be. Sigh. We just keep trying, but man it's exhausting! :) We had a great time, but needless to say, we were ready to back "home" to CO and to get into a new routine.
We've been back since the 20th, and slowly our house is starting to take shape. I have had a rough time adjusting to the altitude (I was super tired when we first arrived before Christmas and this time coming back from SC, I had a headache for about 5 days) but finally my energy is coming back. Charles has in processed at Ft. Carson and jumped right in to meetings and a field training exercise with his new unit, where he is the Signal Officer in charge of the Signal functions for the brigade (phones, internet, radios, etc.). His predecessor did not leave large shoes to fill, so everyone seems genuinely glad to have him around and willing to do the job right. I think he'll do great, but of course I'm biased.
Our cars are now registered in CO, Emmy started preschool, and already we've had our heat repaired and will be waiting on the dryer repairman this week. It's always something! There are tons of little projects around the house we want to do, so we are going to have to prioritize time and money. So far Charles has been spending the last 2 weekends putting together Emmy's new swingset that was her Christmas gift from us. He's also replaced once faucet in the main floor bathroom, with new faucets to go on all 3 sinks upstairs, too. Getting them done in the bathrooms Emmy uses the most has been been a must because she is not able to turn on the old pull up style of handles that were in the house, which means she can't go to the bathroom by herself (which she's perfectly capable of otherwise.) Poor kid! She loves having a playroom downstairs, and so do I because all the toys are out of sight. I was a little worried about the steep stairs, but she navigates them better than Charles and I do, and she's fast! Like I said, there's still a ton to do to get things organized and decorated, but it's slowly starting to feel more like "home".
We had snow this past week, and it was a new experience for things to run on normal schedules, despite 2+ inches on the ground. Driving Emmy to school was a little bit harrier than we expected getting out of the neighborhood, and we got stuck behind a snow plow, but they definitely get the roads cleared fast. The sun here at the higher altitude is much more intense, so it helps met things faster, too.
Charles' birthday was Friday so we did the best we could to celebrate. Unfortunately he had to be up early to head to the field, so he left at 5:30 am and we didn't get to see him until he came home. At least he got to leave a little early and was home around 4 pm. Emmy was super excited to give him her singing card (she is obsessed with cards that play music) and she picked out one with a chimp on it wearing a speedo ("The monkey is wearing panties!" she said) that played "I'm too sexy". I died laughing. Unfortunately Miss E's mood deteriorated quickly Friday evening and the place we picked for dinner was too crowded by the time we arrived, so we ended up back at home eating takeout. Poor planning again on my part, but we still are figuring out where to eat and what places are closest and best for taking kids. Saturday we continued the "celebration" and went to get the car washed (one of Emmy's favorite activites), visited Charles' new office, and then picked up his birthday present from us: a trailer for his bike for Emmy to ride in. I'm not sure who was more excited, Emmy or Charles. After nap time yesterday they headed out for their inaugural ride to the park nearby. I see lots more bike rides in their future.
So there's a quick update on roughly the last month for the Pickle Jar. There's lots more to tell, but that will have to wait for another day.
She is a fun girl, for sure, and keeps us on our toes! She had a great birthday party on Saturday (photos to come later) and then today for her actual birthday I made her sausage gravy and biscuits (she also loves sausage gravy) for breakfast and she opened a few presents from family that had come in the mail and one more little thing from Charles and me. After her ballet class, we went to supper at our favorite Mexican restaurant (she loves Mexican) and we had pink strawberry cupcakes for dessert from a delicious bakery in town.
