Life is moving faster than I would like and I have had a hard time keeping a record of our life because of that. I can't keep up!
Here are a few updates though:
-Greg will be deploying overseas next Fall for work. He will be gone 6 months. I plan on staying with my family while he is gone. I don't think I could make it through that time without some kind of support system, so I thankful for my family!
Our hope is that we will be able to build/buy a house when he gets home! How cool would that be!
-I am doing a home preschool with Deagan at home which is going ok. I am sticking at it though because it makes me feel like a better mom when I am proactive like this. Trying to time it when both kids will cooperate has proven to be my biggest struggle. Someone is always whining and crying it seems!
-Kayden has been cutting his molars for a few weeks now so he has been super grumpy lately. One has poked through so I am hoping he will return to his normal happy self soon!
-Kayden is 18 months old now! I still need to find a pediatrician in the area so I am not sure what his stats are, but he is doing well! He is a good eater and sleeper. He is starting to talk like crazy which is really fun! His favorite thing to say is "all done!" as he waves his hands in the air. When he wakes up from a nap he says this. When he is done eating he says this. When he does not want me to do something he will say that. It is cute :)
-I am doing some personal training which is going well. I have 3 clients now. I love doing this stuff!
I have a job interview at a local gym this Friday and I am hoping that will help me to find some more personal training work!
I am slowly figuring out life here but it has been hard.
We are blessed despite having some really hard times lately. We may not have a lot, but we seem to have enough.
On September 9th, our sweet little Deagan turned 4!!
It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were not parents on the one hand, but on the other I feel like I have always been a parent. It is just crazy how fast these past 4 years have gone!
We got him a bike with training wheels for his birthday this year, and to be honest he doesn't like it. What kid doesn't like a bike?? But I literally have to bride him to ride it. I even got the point where I said we would just have to take it back to the store if he didn't want to ride it, and he said, "Thats fine. I don't want it anyway." I am going to have to try a different angle I think.
He is such a joy to have around, and every day he says something new that blows me away. He may only be 4, but his understanding of the world around him seems so much older.
A few cute Deagan stories:
-He got $4 for his birthday from one of my aunts. When he saw how much money he had, he decided that he was going to save $1 to buy some candy, and then save the rest to get a Cars toy. The fact that he was going to "save" it for something else just blew me away. It might not seem like that big of a deal, but I was impressed!
-We went to buy a car with his money today, and it turned into this big ordeal. They did not have the specific Car that he wanted, so we spent 20 minutes walking down the toy aisles so I could show him what he could afford. I was in a hurry and had a few things that I needed to get done, so I was not the most patient parent. (I need to do better!) At one point, he stopped and said, "Mom, this is really going to disturb you, but I want to surprise you with the toy that I want to get." That is disturbing don't you think? :)
-Even though he is 100% potty trained during the day, he wears a pull up at night because he is a pretty deep sleeper and just does not have that "get up and go to the bathroom when you have to in the middle of the night" down yet. We ran out of pull-ups, and I totally spaced picking some up at the store yesterday. He ended up having to wear a diaper to bed. His reaction to this, "You mean, I can pee in this?" (With a mischievous smile on his face.) He knows he is not suppose to pee in diapers, so he thought this was a really cool thing! He woke up early this morning though to go potty, (which surprised me!) and I took the diaper off. (not sure why I did that since he was going back to sleep) When he woke up this morning, he came running to me and said, "Mom! My diaper is missing! I went to bed with one on, and now its gone!" He totally did not remember going potty in the morning, and I thought it was so funny how he reacted to that!
-Deagan is a really good big brother to Kayden, and is really a very obedient child. Of course he throws tantrums, whines like crazy, and puts up a fight when he doesn't get his way, but really he does what we ask of him. He is a very social little guy, so it has been hard moving here and not having that many friends close by. He misses his friends from NY so much! One day we were playing at a local park, and he made a few friend. He came running by at one point to me and said, "See Mom! I told you I would make friend here!" I so wish we could put him in preschool or something here because I know he would love that social interaction, but because of money we just can't make that work. He doesn't seem to complain too much about this though, and I really think he does enjoy just being with our little family.
We sure love our Deagan, and I am so glad that we were blessed to have him come to our family!!
I know that who ever reads this is probably tired of reading posts about natural disasters on my blog, but since this is a record of what happens in our day to day life, please bear with me one more time!!
Last week it rained here for about 4 days straight. Remnants of tropical storm Lee hung around here all week, and the worst of the storm hit with full force on Thursday night.
I was home by myself with the boys that night. We ate dinner around 5:30, and it was raining. By 6, it was raining so hard that water started to pool up around our back porch and in the parking lot. I was concerned a little since I had not seen water flood like this in our place like that. But then it kept getting worse! Between 6 and 6:30, there was water on our back porch that was reaching our back doors (we live on ground level) and the water in the parking lot was starting to turn into a raging river! Even the breeze way between the apartments in our complex was starting to turn into a stream!
You can tell I was a little freaked out:
At this point, I was really scared and did not know what to do. I called Greg at one point to see where he was and to warn him about the flooding. He was getting some work done on his car, so he really couldn't come home right then but promised he would be home soon. About 20 minutes later, he was still not home and he was not answering his phone. I started to think that maybe his car got swept away by the flood water or something awful like that.
Between being scared of the water getting into our apartment and not knowing where Greg was, I was not thinking clearly. At one point I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids up a level just in case the water got too high. We got to the balcony of the 2nd floor, and Deagan tells me, "Mom, we don't have any pants or shoes on." Sure enough, both kids had shirts and jackets on but no pants or shoes. I decided to race back down to get some more clothes on them because I was thinking we might be forced to leave or something, and when we got inside I felt so strongly that we should pray for Greg. So we knelt down in our living room floor and we prayed. I prayed that if it was God's will, that it would stop raining so hard and that the water would not get any higher. I prayed that we would be safe and I would know what I needed to do to protect my children. And most of all, I prayed that Greg would come home safe to us.
Not more than 2 minutes later Greg walked in the door, soaking wet. Our prayer worked! He said that he had to park a few block away from our complex because most of the roads by our place were blocked at that point because of the flash flood, and he ran from the car to our apartment through this raging river! Where he ran, the water was above his knees, but we heard later from some friends that live near us that it was above their waist! There were reports of SUV's being completely buried in water! Flash floods are so dangerous, and a few times Greg thought he was going to get pulled down by the current of the water. I am so grateful that our prayer worked and brought him safely to us because the outcome could have been so awful!
Having him home really helped to calm me down, but I was still nervous. We had finalized out 72 hour kits in preparation for Hurricane Irene a few weeks ago, but a few days before this storm I took out a few of the food items so I could use them in a few meals. I also took out some of the clothes with the intention of putting clothes in that would actually fit the boys. We gathered a few items and packed the most random 72 hour kits ever. I ended up with like 5 pairs of pants and Greg had a shirt. Clearly I was not thinking straight. I also threw our important papers in a plastic grocery bag just in case.
As the night went on, the rain was still coming down hard but the water was receding at out door. Our prayer was answered again. We felt at that point, that we were safe to stay in our apartment.
Greg took this video that night:
We woke up the next morning, and the water had gone down considerably, but there was mud everywhere!!
Unfortunately, water did seep into our car; both of our cars. We are not really sure how high it got or if it got into our engine. We checked the oil and the tail pipe and did not see any water, but who knows. Greg also shampooed our carpets and cleaned the car as well as he could. To make matters worse, I found out today that the water that came through here is considered to be category 3 flood water; meaning that on a scale of 1 to 3 of water contamination, the water that got in our car was the most contaminated water.
To be honest, our car is stressing me out so much right now. I didn't realize just how stressed I was until my mom called today and asked me about it. Sorry for the tears moms! We have a very high deductible, and no way to pay for repairs with that deductible being so high. We have an insurance agent coming by soon to look at it, so I am praying so hard that some how something will work out. I don't know why I am so stressed about a car, but I am. Having a car in this area symbolizes freedom for me in a way. The first 2 weeks here, I did not have a car, and I felt so trapped and hated it here. Every time I don't have the car now, those feeling come back and I don't want to go back there.
Right now, I feel like we are getting hit back to back with no time to recover, and I feel worn down. Life is super stressful right now, so I have to remind myself to stop and count my blessings because those definitely out weight the trials.
I am hoping that this is my last natural disaster post for awhile now for all our sakes. :)
This past Friday, as I was getting us ready to leave town that afternoon, I decided to cut Deagan's hair. I'm not sure what possessed me to try and cut this little man's hair while I was in the middle of frantically packing and cleaning, but for some reason I HAD to do it.
Deagan's hair is very curly, and when it is longer his curls stick up all over. It is cute up to a point, and then it just looks like I don't take care of him. His hair was at this point, and we were going to be seeing friends that we haven't seen in a while. I had to at least LOOK like I was doing ok! :)
He screamed the whole time I was cutting it. I used a razor so it was pretty quick, but it was pure torture to him! I put a towel around his neck to keep hair from getting on his back. He HATES having hair on his back. I put cotton balls in his ears to keep hair out. He HATES hair in his ears. He then covered his whole face with the towel. He HATES hair in his face.
It was quite the sight, and to be honest I was laughing the whole time. It was just comical how upset he was and the lengths that I went to to keep him as happy as possible. I even resorted to bribery to finish! Yes, I am THAT kind of mom and I am ok with it!
Despite the tears, I think he looks great don't you think??
I am sorry for keeping you hanging for what has happened since the storm left us, but we had kind of a hard week and I fell into a blogging slump. I had planned on being very dramatic in my end, but since it is a week late (and it has kind of become old news already!) and I just want to get this up for future reference, I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking!
We woke up the next morning and had power. Our clocks were blinking which meant at some point we lost power. But the next morning we were just fine! I slept though the whole storm as well! Lame! I thought I would have heard the wind howling or something.
Church was still on since the church we attend still had power. But towards the end of the first meeting, the power went off. Church was canceled, and as much as I love church, I also love a "snow day" now and then! :)
After we got home, we went walking to explore the damage around us.
A few signs were very unfortunate during the storm.
Along with a few flag posts and signs.
A pond with by our house has a trail that goes around it that we like to walk a long. There were trees down all around the path.
A few of the trees fell, leaving some space to walk past, but others covered the entire path. I like to run around this path with the boys, but it wasn't until Friday of last week that I was able to do that again.
Log jumping!
This is hard to tell in this picture, but there did not use to be that much water off the side of the trail. (The side opposite of the pond.) After the storm, there was a mini stream running by the path. That is what 24 hours of constant rain will do!
Another sign that fell victim to the storm!
Kayden got really tired towards the end of the walk and refused to walk another step!
Deagan to the rescue! He really is such a great big brother when he wants to be! :)
We were very blessed and fortunate that the storm did not hit us as bad as it could have. We were prepared for the worst though. We had all the supplies that we might need, and we came out ok!
I think I am over natural disasters for the time being though! An earthquake and hurricane in one week is enough for me!
According to the weather reports that we had been getting all week, Irene was suppose to hit our area the hardest Saturday night and in to Sunday morning. So on Friday I was surprised when a huge thunderstorm hit our area. Before that, we were going to take the kids swimming in our pool at our complex, but they had closed it to prepare for the storm. Deagan was pretty annoyed at that, and said in a very annoyed voice, "When is the hurricane going to be over!?" He had his mind on swimming, and he was not happy that this hurricane was ruining his plans! When it started to pour, I decided to take the kids out and to run in the rain to make up for that minor inconvenience, and it seemed to do the trick. :)
This storm was an unrelated storm to Irene, but it came at a pretty bad time. Because of it the ground was going to be super saturated when Irene finally did come, which meant that the chances for severe flooding were very high. I started getting nervous about flooding in our place at that point since we live on the ground level, and as it was raining, we noticed a few areas around our place really pool up in that short time. We had some neighbors out at that same time, who also lived on ground level, and they told us that they had never gotten any flooding in their place and they did not expect to get any this time. That definitely helped to put my mind at ease a bit, but no one really knew just how hard Irene would hit.
Saturday morning (the day the storm was suppose to hit) I woke up on went to town on cleaning the house. There was talk of having the power out for over 3 days, so I wanted to make sure that I had it as clean as could be if that were really to happen. I also caught up on all the laundry.
It was late afternoon before I had finished everything that I wanted to get done, and from that point on we just stayed inside and hung out. It started to rain pretty heavily around 11 or so, which meant that a band of Irene had made landfall in our area. There was some wind, but nothing too high or damaging at that point. It rained pretty steadily all day, and continued to get worse as the day went on.
We were all feeling pretty stir crazy from being inside all day towards the end of the day. We tried to pass the time by playing games, watching movies, and eating. We also watched the news pretty much all day to see what the storm was doing at that moment, and it was really interesting to see what other areas were experiencing. I have to say though that this storm was really hyped up. Almost too much even.
We put the kids to bed early, and then stayed up to catch some more of the storm. We also took pictures of some of our hurricane damage that we had gotten up to that point:
Our door mat blew away!! Pretty severe right ;)
Around 11, we were both exhausted and decided to call it a night. I expected to be up a lot in the middle of the night because of the storm and the high winds.
When we went to bed, the storm definitely had increased in intensity, so I was nervous what we were going to see when we looked outside the next morning. What was Irene going to do to us!? Would we wake up with water in our house!? Would we wake up with no power?!
You would have had to live under a rock to not know that Hurricane Irene swept up the East coast this weekend. It was probably the only thing on the news this weekend. It was really hyped up, and at least in our area it did end up being as bad as they expected. And to be honest, it was a bit of a let down. I mean, I am totally happy and relieved that no one that I know and love got hurt, but for all the hype this storm got, I was expecting more.
I am going to break down the storm in a few posts. This one is pre-storm; the days leading up to the event.
I heard about Irene possibly making landfall on Wednesday I believe. The day before we experienced our first earthquake in the DC area, so when I heard that this ginormous storm was coming our way I was nervous! Two major natural disasters in one week is pretty rare!
We started making preparations a few days in advanced because we knew that if we waited until the last minute, we would not be able to get the things that we wanted. We had a significant amount of food storage already saved up, but we got a few more gallons of water just in case and replaced batteries in flashlights, gassed up both cars, took out some cash, etc. It felt good to be prepared!
Thursday night was probably the day that I was most nervous about the storm. It was at that point thought to be coming in at a category 3 storm, and was predicted to create a lot of damage in our area. So I was already stressed about that possibility, and then that night our sky turned a really weird orange color. For some reason it made me even more nervous!
We debated going to central New York, where we moved from, to stay with some friends to avoid this monster storm, so we made it a matter of prayer.
We watched the news the next day, and at that point, the intensity had gone down. As we prayed and watched the news, we felt that we would be safe by staying, so that's what we did! We were going to wait out the storm...
