Hardest Decisions

Sometimes in life we are faced with some very tough decisions. I am finding myself smack in the middle of TWO, count em, TWO decisions that I have to make.

The first is a personal decision. I have chosen to cut ties with a long time friend who does nothing but drag me down. Its always about their life, their needs, their wants. Its 1am phone calls, and advice wanted. Only to find out that they stay in the same cycle day in and day out. They seem to forget that I have needs/wants myself. But its always the same. "Woe is me. Woe is me. You cant possibly understand how bad my life is." My advice has always been the same. What would it take to make your life better? Followed by hours long phone calls and IM's and text messages. We talk about choices to make, ideas to persue, and a plan of action. But, three days later. Its the same phone call all over again. "My life sucks. My job sucks. My relationship sucks." Its a neverending bitter cycle that I refuse to be involved in anymore. Its killing me inside to know that they just wont have the kind of friendship with the rest of their friends as I have always been the one to tell the honest unabridged truth. And its killing me to tell this person Goodbye.

But I will be stronger for it.

The second is a decision that I hope no one else ever wants to make in a million years. The decision from the appeals process has been decided. Tricare is NOT going to cover Alvin's helmet. No way, no shape, no form. I had been talking to the Health Benefits Advisor(HBA) at the clinic. She was working with me and trying to convince the HBA of Tricare that this was indeed medically necessary. To no avail. Also, the clinic was toying with the idea of helping us to pay it themselves. This has since fallen through as well. So, unless we can come up with the money ourselves, its looking like Alvin wont get his helmet. So, the only other thing we can do is wait until after he is a year old. Petition to have his development monitored and then attempt to have neurosurgery to fix his head. This process can take up to a year and half to complete. Or..

We can do nothing and just let him develop however he is going to develop. Right now, after reviewing his file, the doctors feel that he is the developmental equivalent of a 4 month old. He is almost 8 months old and it breaks my heart.

What to do? What to do? And how do I tell Eric? Email? Or do I just wait until he gets home? Sigh. Hard decisions, no easy answers.

And the winner is......

Well...it looks like we had a tie actually. Both the Alpine boy and the Monkey got equal votes. So, once Eric gets him home, I am going to allow him to be the tie breaker. Woo!

Ok, so, I won this awesome sweater on Ebay for Alvin. Woo hoo! He is going to look so cute in it.

Granted, its a 6-9 month size. So, here is to hoping he is actually big enough to wear it this winter. I just think that with those beautiful blue eyes of his, that this will be handsome on him.

Not much else is going on. Just counting down the days until our anniversary. Starting to plan for the holidays and bunches of other things.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

So, for the third dreary day in a row, I decided that the kids were going to just go insane. So, off to Chuck E Cheese we went. There is no pic of Emali cause she wouldnt sit down long enough for me to get a pic. And, she was running full speed ahead of Erin is the run-by pic. But, they were too fast and all I got was Erin.




Yes, this is my ugly mug. Erin wanted to take a picture. I dont think she did bad.

Crazy day and only half done.

So, we get up this morning and head to Walmart vision to get Emali's eyes checked out. Its official. She needs glasses. Wonderful. More money we get to spend. So, she picks out these cute Hannah Montana frames.

$150 dollars later and our order was finalized. (This is just for the glasses. Ugh!) She should be rocking her new glasses next weekend. I will definately post pics once we get the glasses actually on her face. She is so excited to have glasses too. I cant wait to see Eric's face. Plus, he gets to teach her how to care for them, since well, I have no clue. I havent known where my glasses are for years. Never took care of them even when I had them.

So, then it was off to Babies R Us to get Joy's shower gift. I know. Sneaky. I refuse to buy things on people's registry before an event cause I know that people tend to look at what they are getting and what they arent. I like to be surprised with gifts. So, I tend to buy things the day of events. So here is what I got Joy:

It was a nice shower. Samantha really outdid herself. Wonderful food, awesome decorations, fun atmosphere. You really do throw nice parties Sam! And Grats to you Joy! That little boy will be here before you know it! Cant wait to meet him!

Last but certainly not least. Happy birthday to you Jeannie! Hope its filled with fun and laughter.

Good news

Well, its not exactly the news we were hoping for, but, the realtor called with good news for us. She found renters for our house. They are going to pay the top amount of rent a month. They are going to fix our driveway and lastly, they have no kids and no pets, so hopefully, no damage to the house! They are willing to let the house be shown while they are living there and they are going to do a month to month lease that way if we find buyers, we can still sell it.

Yes, its not exactly what we were wanting, but at least we dont have to winterize the house or anything like that now! Woo Hoo!

Awww

So, I just got an email from Eric regarding the flowers he got me. I just had to share.

"hey there, how are you? i hope did not surprise you too much with those flowers! ... i just thought of a day to deliever them when you might need them the most. i hope you like them. just because i'm out here doesn't mean i don't think about you all the time.... i love you.eric "

aww... my heart is melting. Now, why cant he be like this when he is home?

Rest your oar, Sailor.

As many know already, the Submarine Force was struck a horrid blow with the death of MM3 Gentile aboard the USS Nebraska.

Rest in peace Sailor, for tonight, they have the watch. God rest your soul.

Peace, love and understanding goes out to his family. May God bless you and keep you in this unbelievably sad time. Rest assured that you can find comfort in the submarine community. While we dont feel your pain as deeply, we are grieving alongside you.

Oh my

So, here I am, just surfing the internet, when I see a car pull up in front of the house. Delivery guy gets out with this awesome basket of flowers. Wow, the neighbor is one lucky woman. The delivery guy does indeed walk over to the neighbors house, knock on their door. They arent home, havent been all day. So, he walks over here. Knocks on my door. I go and open the door.





"Wow, nice flowers. Her husband sure is thoughtful." Delivery guy nods. "You Jennifer?", he asks. *blink* "Yes, I am Jennifer." He looks down and verifies the last name. Ok. So I go back in the house with my pretty flowers. 'Who on earth is sending me flowers?' I open the card and see handwriting I immediately recognize.



"I love you. Just thought I would actually show it. Love, Eric"



Wow, its time like this when I fall even more head over heels for that man. Even though you wont see this cause you are under the ocean somewhere.

I love you too Eric.

Halloween Costumes

So, its getting to that time a year, and the hunt it in full operation for the 'perfect' Halloween costume. Em already has demanded a specific Hannah Montana costume. So, yeah.

Hannah Montana it is. Erin has been more forgiving, as long as it has something to do with kitties. So I found this totally cute costume online.

Its a Hello Kitty fairy princess. Too cute.....Now we come to the hard one. Alvin....Eric and I had decided that he would be a devil. But, I dont know. I saw some cute other ones online. Decisions, decisions. Monkey? cause he is my little monkey? Vampire? cause well, he has fangs now and it hurts. Or Alpine man, cause well, Eric has lederhausen, so Alvin would look cute in it too.

11 months down

So, yay! We have officially made it 11 months! Woo hoo! 1 month to go until Eric and I celebrate our anniversary. Funnily enough, the day we got married it was 70 degrees and the sun was shining. I somehow doubt that its going to be that warm up here come October 20th. Here is to hoping.

And here is to hoping that he is home for it.

Stop Growing Up!

So today, at the ripe old age of 7 months, 1 week, and 5 days, Alvin is into a size 2 diaper. Yes, small milestone. But, its so indicitive of his development as well. He is finally big enough to get out of size 1's.

Anyone that knows me, also knows that both girls were in size 1 diapers when they were born and out of them by 3 months old. So, my little man finally growing out of them is a big accomplishment.

The doctors are hoping that once his head is fixed, that he will start to develop normally, but, for right now, he is developing, just far behind where he should be. But, the important thing is, he does reach the milestones. Just, in his good sweet time. Woo hoo!

Congrats to you, little man. You are growing up. and you need to stop.

Back home again

Oh yes, our wonderful trip to Ohio. We were originally supposed to leave on Saturday, the 6th, but due to Hanna supposed to be heading in our direction, and with having to tow the trailer, we decided to leave on Friday afternoon as soon as Emali got home from school. So out we ventured. We drove to the halfway point where we decided to crash at a hotel for the night. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Ohio.



When we get to our house in Ohio, we find a mess. Plain and simple. They left trash and all sorts of crap everywhere. The counters even looked like they took food and just rubbed it everywhere. They left rotted food in the fridge. Oh yeah, the best parts, they stole stuff. They took the riding lawn mower, the thermostat for the a/c and heater, they took an air register cover, the dehumidifier and countless other things. Its so nice when your own family acts this way.


Yeah, oh yeah, they even left us a nice note admitting to the whole thing. Morons. So anyway, fast forward a week, and we got the entire house cleaned up and on the market. The realtor has it listed for $165,000 and they are showing the house either today or tommorrow. Here is to hoping it sells! I am just so glad that we finally dont have to deal with this anymore.



EDITED TO ADD:


So, just got off the phone with Eric. He had wonderful news. *groan* They switched his duty day from tommorrow to today. Wonderful. He took nothing with him so I have to go down to base today. Bleah.

We made it!

Sorry I havent been updating. We made it to Ohio and are cleaning up the mess left in our house. I am on a 'borrowed' dial up connection so I wont be posting much or any pictures until we get back home. But, we are doing well, and the kids are finally happy to get out of the truck. We put the house on the market today and the realtor is optimistic that we will sell it soon. Talk to you more later.

The other woman

So, Eric's other wife allowed me a few short moments before she took him back into cold embrace. *sigh*. He was able to finish shut down and come home for the night, but had to go in today and today is a duty day. Oh lucky me. She gets more of him than anyone else does. See! Told you she doesnt share well.

We are planning on heading out of here early on Saturday morning to head to Ohio. While I am looking forward to the trip, I am also aprehensive about what lies there. But, that is a bridge we will cross when we get to it.

For now, I am going to go put my feet up, lie down, and read a book. Emali is at school, Erin is asleep, and so is Alvin. ahhhhh peace and quiet.

Alvin's latest checkup

Ok, so we are freshly back from the NACC and I am armed with plethora of information. This was his 6 month checkup. (yes, I know he is only 2 days shy of being 7 months, but at least he made it in while he was still 6 months). So, what did I learn?

Alvin is now a whopping 15 pounds, 7 ounces. He has finally doubled his birth weight. Still almost a month behind on that, but at least we hit it. Percentile-wise? Yeah, he doesnt even touch the growth chart. No surprise there.

He is also an impressive 25 1/2 inches in length. So all in all he has grown 6 1/2 inches since birth. Woo hoo. Again, percentile-wise, we dont hit the growth charts.

His head is 17 inches in circumfrence. What that means, or what percentile? I dont know. They dont generally talk to us much about what his head is doing. They send all that info to the craniofacial specialist and they talk to us. Or, at least, are supposed to talk to us.

Anyway, I talked to Lynn today. (The wonderful nurse at the NACC who is working on getting Alvin's band). Apparently, no one has done anything cause his referral and records were 'misplaced' during the great doctor shuffle. So after explaining the plagiocephaly and brachycephaly that Alvin has to the NEW doctor. I was finally able to have a solid discussion with the doctor, the nurse and the head dude at the NACC. Lynn is going to be 'on the ball' in getting his band through. She is hoping that we can have it in time for Christmas. Oh what a wonderful gift that would be.

EDITED TO ADD: Apparently I totally flaked earlier, but the demon grew fangs. That is right. Alvin's front two bottom teeth came in today. Yay, now when he bites, its gonna hurt.

Now, it is time for me to go. I have more cleaning to do until Emali comes home, then its time to go remove my husband from the evil clutches of his demanding other wife, Virginia. And trust me, she doesnt share well.

Off to School

So, yet another year of school begins. Emali went off to school this morning just as happy as can be. "Finally!" she said as she ran to the bus stop. I am glad that she wants to go to school. And glad that for once in her relatively short life so far, that she will be able to complete an entire year of school in the same school. Here is to a good and happy Second Grade!

Bedhead?

Ok, so I go into Alvin's room this morning and there he is in all his glory. Just cooing, and grinning and having a good time. Then I get a good look at his head. The child has bedhead! Bedhead! On a 6 month old! Sheesh. I guess its time to invest in something to keep that mass of hair in order. Sigh.

Why does it figure? Both girls were bald until 18 months old. My son, however, would have a full head of hair at birth. sigh.