Ramblings

A week ago today, our phone communication stopped. This is definitely something that we are gonna have to adjust to again. i don't know why i ever said deployment was easy. I think that it was good that we got sea duty right off the bat. We were used to being apart, college, boot, training... it just seemed like the norm. But after 2 years of that not being our norm... Wow. Who woulda thought i actually LOVE my hubby being home! So, we count down days until this little work up is over, and talk about staying in or getting out- staying in is of course the consensus for no, but ONLY on shore duty orders- and talk about how we can't wait to see each other again. These are the things that make J and I have a relationship that can not be broken. For any reason. we are both fully committed to it, but these little things that the navy throws at us makes us the strong enduring couple that we are. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Enough of the sappy crap.

I am officially in my third trimester of my last pregnancy. Asher's movement seems to have slowed a bit. He's still active, but he isn't doing summersaults like he used to. Doc seems to think that he's already dropped. Thats a sign of a very cooperative baby :) We have 10 weeks until we strip my membranes and try to meet him. The doc and my mama aren't so sure he's gonna wait that long. He better at least wait 8 weeks, I need his lungs to be nice and strong. And i need 2 more months to get things ready for him! I still don't have a carseat for him!!! I think i'll get that next weekend tho... Maybe. Im really liking having my car parked in the garage and then not going anywhere for days on end. We go for walk, and to the park, but no where that requires driving. Its wonderful :) and the money saved on gas... lets say that J filled it up when he left and im down, not even a quarter of a tank.... he's been gone over a week.... And the plan is to not go anywhere for a while... I have food and milk... what else do i need?

The smell of baked french toast is filling my house, and I am half starved. I can't wait for it to finish so i can see if this is as good as i was told it is. until then, i have laundry to fold and take care of, and a dishwasher to empty.... oh what fun!

Sometimes words just aren't enough....

And that is when the tears take over.

Jamie left this morning. He'll only be gone a month. Those of you that know me, know that is NOT a big deal. Those of you that don't know me... well, trust me, its NOT a big deal. But this time his leaving was different. Up until this point, my biggest concern has been getting MYSELF thru it. That all changed when my 4 year old had a meltdown about his daddy leaving. Eli knew something wasn't right when he saw daddy's sea bag packed by the front door, AND daddy out of bed before mama this morning. Daddy held him in his arms as he tried to eat breakfast, Eli sobbing the whole time. Up until this morning, i never once doubted our decision to be a military family. Never. This was just the way it was. J and I do deployments so seamlessly. No, this is not because we don't miss each other or because we like to be apart. Its because we have embraced this as our life. We love each other more than either of us can really comprehend. And we appreciate the time that we have together. But for many reasons WE made the decision to be a military family, so we don't whine about it. We don't complain. We embrace it with all of its challenges and we love it. But this morning.... my heart broke into about 7.3 million pieces as I watched my little boy cry. Are we doing this because its whats best for the family? What will this do to our boys long term? Will they learn to embrace it too? Or will they forever resent us because their daddy deployed so much? Why is being a parent so hard? Why do we doubt everything we do? Will it EVER get easier? Here i am 7 months pregnant and already praying that I don't screw up this baby too bad. Ugh. I wish someone would have told me how little faith you have in yourself when you become a parent.....

On another note. This baby that I am 7 months pregnant with.... He is now named. I know i know, we've changed our minds so many times your thinking we probably don't REALLY have him named, BUT I don't waste money, its not in my genetic make up. And today I bought letters for his name. That means, its not being changed, even if we did decide we hated it. But were not going to. Because we love it. Asher James Montgomery. Asher means "happy/blessed" in Hebrew. James has no significance except that when J was in college, his buddies called him James, and he has on occasion toyed with the idea of going by James rather than Jamie. Im starting to stress about not having everything ready for him when he gets here, but Im just praying that it all comes together. Im sure it will. Im a planner. And Im ocd, i don't see how it would be possible for me to NOT be ready when he gets here.

Anywho. I am off to paint letters for the last member of the Monty family and then make some dinner for my little men.

As the world turns.....

My life seems to be flying by and if i blink i miss something.

My brothers were here for a whole week and it felt like... over night. I loved having them here, but dropping them off at the airport bummed me out. Zeb is leaving for college in the fall, and this is likely the last trip he'll make out here for a while. That kid.... I know i brag about him a lot, but if you knew him, you'd understand why. I won't get into it and bore anyone ( as if anyone actually reads my ramblings) but he is one remarkable 18 year old. Keeters.... that kid.... Man do i love him, but he is challenging. He is great with my boys for a little while, but then they all start to pick at each other and feed on each other. NOT a good thing for a very preggie mama with two toddlers and a 16 year old uncle.... Kee just gets bored easily, and without having a giant vehicle to transport everyone in, it made for a pretty non eventful trip for them. Hopefully next time he comes to visit we can do some fun stuff... Like a zoo or childrens museum- he would be AWESOME with my boys there, and i discovered it only days after they left! Bummer!

I am now 6.5 months preggers. I have my glucose test tomorrow. and then i think this is my last monthly appointment that will happen in just over a week. Then i think we go to bi monthly! Are we SERIOUSLY there already?!?!?! We are playing the name game again. We have vetoed just about everything.... I have friends that have made wonderful suggestions, but for one reason or another, its just not this baby's name. I am beyond frustrated with this process. hopefully it will just click and he'll have a name very soon.

J is leaving in less than 2 weeks. he'll be gone over a month. I am sort of looking forward to this. Not because I like him being gone, but because the shop is horrible. And I think he will be much happier on the ship. The break will be good for him, work wise. I'll miss him. The boys will miss him. I am not looking forward to explaining to Ayden where daddy's blue motorcycle is every day.... I think daddy is going to store it at his buddies house while hes gone... our garage isn't very big, and we haven't figured out how to put the bike in the garage in FRONT of my car. If we figure that out, obviously it'll stay here.

Oh yeah, did i mention that J has a motorcycle? We have been trying to figure out how in the world we were going to afford to buy an SUV or van soon after baby boy number 3 got here, and not matter how we tried, it just didn't seem to be happening. So, we opted for the next best option. Get J his bike. We paid cash for it. In fact, we paid cash for his insurance, his gear, AND his bike. Oh and his registration. We don't believe in financing see. So the issue with getting the SUV wasn't that we COULDN'T get it, but rather we weren't going to buy it if we couldn't put our name and only our name on the title.  So, I'll hold onto my car for another year or so. Once J gets back from cruise we will reevalute and hopefully be able to buy our SUV then. But in the mean time. J having a bike means that I get a car EVERY DAY. Let me just tell you how nice it is to not be a one mode of transportation family anymore!

The boys.... yes they are still here. They are still alive. They are pills. This stage is less than fun. Thats all i wish to say on that subject.

Now, I feel like I have a baby that is attempting to come out right now, so I am going to soak in the tub and pray that it helps this pain that i am in.

Can we say.... lack of focus?

A week from today, my husband will be making a trip to LA to pick up two young men.  My brothers have spring break starting next friday, so they're gonna come spend it with me :) I can not even begin to express how excited I am to have them coming. My boys LOVE their uncles. They may very well be their favorite teenagers in the whole entire world. Of course, that works out well for me, since I am particularly fond of these two teenagers.

J got his schedule for going out to sea for the next... well, however long until he deploys. Can i just say... this baby has GOT to come early. like 38 weeks would be ideal. Otherwise, I might be pushin a baby out alone, and have a third little boy that doesn't get to meet his daddy until he is 6 plus months old. This would NOT be cool with me. Not even a little. Good news is, my doc doesn't seem to think we'll have any problem having Mr. Evan at 38 weeks. She thinks that my track record is good, so he'll probably be ready by then. I hope she's right!  I know i CAN do it, i just don't want to. I mean, he wasn't suppose to deploy that soon, so if they could hold that off- this is all still up in the air, LOVE the way the military has such solid plans for things..... NOT- to the month they were actually SUPPOSE to go out, then J would be able to see his last little boy smile and maybe just maybe even roll over.... its in God's hands, but Im just gonna have to give it to Him daily.

What else.... As i sit here typing my boys are eating lunch. And watching sesame street. Then its nap time. Awww. Nap time. I really can't complain. My boys are amazing. Both of them put themselves to bed when they're tired. And neither fights me when i suggest its time to take a nap. I really have the nap time part easy. Eli doesn't nap, he never has been a napper, but he plays quietly by himself while his brother sleeps. Quiet time doesn't come very often in my house, so those two hours a daily are very valued here.

OH! BIG NEWS!!! My husband is now officially a COLLEGE SENIOR! what a relief that is! He was just talking about how he was starting to wonder if all of this was worth it. Then we counted out his credits and looked at his degree plan and realized that he is just 31 credits away from graduation. WOW. I am so excited and proud and relieved and excited... did i say i was excited? Once he has his degree it will open up a whole new avenue of career life for us. OCS is just around the corner now. So close we can almost taste it.... the smell is definitely in the air.... maybe another couple semesters and the taste will be there too.

Now that lunch is over, i suppose i better get Ayden into his bed for his nap. He is telling me hes sleeping as i type.... Im noticing a pattern... Ayden is my child that is always taking me away from my blogging.... can we say high maintenance much?

OH, last thing.... i swear im shutting up after this..... Evan's middle name is for sure Reece. I won. I love it. were all happy.

EVAN REECE MONTGOMERY... does have a nice ring to it doesn't it? YAY!

ramblings

There has been a lot of chaos here as of late. The in laws were here for 9 days, we cancelled our order for the boys furniture, so then we needed to find some things locally so I could actually put their room together. After much research, I did it. I found what i wanted. beds for the boys from a small local Christian owned and operated business. And, he gave us a SCREAMIN deal. He even offered to put them on his truck and deliver them himself- he was the owner. It was wonderful. Then i had to find a dresser. And that is just what i did. Found the PERFECT dresser that wouldn't fit in our car. So my husband did what any clear thinking man would do. He appeased his wife. He drove around for 2 hours finding a place that had a mini van for us to rent. Is he not the greatest? Oh, it gets better. He then proceeded to drive to the mattress store, and fit BOTH the mattresses in the newly rented mini van so that we could have them home that day! Then ya know what we did? we drove an hour out of our way to find this dresser that my heart was set on. We did manage to find some other things while we were at the out of the way store, and it was a very good trip. He then decided that since we had the mini van we needed to take advantage of it, so despite the fact that he was half starved, we went to babies r us and bought the baby a crib. then to home depot to buy pulls for the boys dresser. THEN we stopped for some 5 dollar pizza at little caesars. We got home, ate, and unloaded the van. After all of that, my amazing hubby put together the boys bunk beds. See, i told you, he is INCREDIBLE. The next day we went and got groceries, and ran a couple other places since i needed to get a couple things to complete these projects.... OH, i forgot to say before, he also went out of his way to go to JoAnne's in a different city so that I could get the letters that I wanted to do the boys names.....

SO, the boys room is now put together, but still needs some finishing touches. We are all exhausted. J has class tonight and tomorrow night, only 4 more classes and then he is DONE for about a week. I think he's going to do a cleanse that week, after eating as crappy as we have for the last month.

Oh, he put together the babies crib this weekend too :) it looks great and we just LOVE it. I can't wait to get the dresser and my rocker. those are my other big ticket items. The IL's bought us the crib, so that was a blessing we didn't expect.

Speaking of babies.... I think we have this one named. Evan. j picked it. I like it, it goes well with the boys names. Were having a bit of a hard time agreeing on a middle name, but if i get what i want, his name will be Evan Reece Montgomery, in honor of my middle brother. :)

I hear the soon to be middle child starting to wake up.... i better go....

And baby monty is....

A boy! yep. I know you've all heard this already, but you have not heard how i dealt with this news.  We wanted a girl. really really badly. So bad in fact that we timed my ovulation and researched positions that were best for baby GIRL making. We still got a boy. I cried. Im not gonna lie, i was bummed. major bummed out for a good.... hour. See, I am extremely girly. my boys are of course, all boy. there is nothing prim, proper or pretty about my boys. They're rough and tumble boys. Dirt is their best friend, running and screaming is one of their favorite past times.... And I love it. Thats what boys are suppose to do. But J has all these plans for taking the boys out for boys weekends on four wheelers, or snow machines. Don't get me wrong, I love some campin and fishin, but it would have been so amazing to take my little princess to have mani's and pedi's while the boys were out. My whole "gonna have a best friend" dream was shattered in about 2 seconds when little mister spread his legs and said, 'here mom, your getting another mess!'

But... then i got to thinking. Girls are a lot of work. and cause a lot of stress. and a lot of gray hair. Raising boys... that is an honor. See, I am a firm believer in women being home to raise kids. I understand that is not always possible, but as a mother of 2 (soon to be 3) boys, I feel that it is my responsibility to teach my boys how to provide for their families, how to be strong Christian men, husbands, daddy's and leaders. And to teach them how important it is to have mama be able to stay home with the kiddos if that is indeed what she WANTS to do. There is so much pressure put on my husband. He takes it like a champ. He couldn't do that if he didn't have a wife that supported his every move, but still, HE is the head of this home. HE is the leader. HE is the provider. I have 3 HE's I have to teach to have these same values. What a privilege.

I can not WAIT to meet this bitty man. only 20 weeks and a few days. Now, if we could just come up with a name that we BOTH love.... that would be perfect!

Could it be? Nesting? So soon?

Is it possible that I could be nesting at 17 weeks already? We decided to buy the boys bunk beds and convert little misters room into a nursery. Or as the boys call it "tummy babies room". So, in preparation for the arrival of the bunk bed, we moved Ayden into Eli's room. Of course, I had to paint Eli's room back to the original Military White because well... their new room is a rock and roll room. Complete with black, grey and red guitars. That doesn't match navy blue and lime green even a little. So weekend before last, mama spent the entire weekend painting the room. Turned out nice. SO much brighter now than it was before. We turned Eli's bed and then moved Ayden in there. We even moved the boys computer into the bedroom, as well as Ayden's dresser. In ordering new bedroom furniture we went ahead and ordered a nice dresser for them also. This will serve as a TV stand for them as well. So, the bunk is suppose to be here today. Unfortunately, the mattresses won't be here for another couple weeks. Not a huge deal, just a bit of an inconvenience since we ordered a twin over full so we could have a guest bed, and our guests get here Friday.... At least now Ayden's old room is clean and smells wonderful and is totally empty so that said guests can have that room. Anywho, back tot he nesting question. Since the big switch, i have been on a cleaning frenzy. My pantry, my cabinets, deep cleaning the entire house... I dont even think this place was this clean when i moved into it 6 months ago. I am starting to register for baby stuff, and its making me feel like this whole thing is happening fast, so i HAVE to have this house READY. seriously, how insane is that since im not due till JULY?!?! I suppose the timing of this couldn't have been better tho. The IL's get in on Friday. A clean house for the IL's is always a necessity. My to do list yesterday was ridiculous. I somehow managed to get it all finished tho.... Today its not so bad. and im almost done with it all. its not even 10 am. so the question is... will i find more to do, or will i relax once the to do list is finished..... 

Off to finish the last 2 things on my list and impatiently wait for my bunk bed to get here....