Yeah, Yeah. I'm a terrible blogger...moving on!

Ava is a little over 7 months old. Where has the time gone??

It's been wonderful staying home with her. She and I are pals :) However, back to reality...ish. Marc's next deployment is looming and I am applying to a few different jobs. I will not do more than part time (she's still #1), but I have a desire to continue the work I love! We've lined up a sitter who is anxiously awaiting my schedule once I have a job or two, and we think Ava will transition just fine (or so we hope!).

February to July have flown by, but during those months, we...

traveled to NY to meet cousin Isabella...

Traveled to Tx...

Ava learned to eat from a spoon (messy!)...

we traveled to see our next niece, Khloe, a few days after she was born...

celebrated Ava's first Easter...

celebrated my first Mother's day (with her on the outside..hehe)...

took Ava swimming for the first time...

And celebrated Marc's first father's day...

We have been busy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaack!!

Alright, Alright, Alright....

Becoming a mother is a life changer, and has been the only thing I've been focusing on lately. But, I'm starting to get the hang of it and am ready to return!

November 22, 2010...9pm: Went into labor, slow progress, so we all went to bed (my parents, Marc, and myself) Check out the last picture before labor started...TERRIBLE!!!

November 23, 2010...1am: My water broke in my sleep. What a mess! Seriously!! We called the hospital to make sure I should go at that moment, and we headed that way. As we arrived at the hospital, Marc drove over the curb, between posts, and up to the ER drop off...LOL. We probably should have done a practice run so that we would know the best way to get there.

Hurting and exhausted...

8pm: After all sorts of waiting and complications, with my blood pressure through the roof, lack of pain relief from the epidural, 22 hrs of labor, etc....Ava was born!!

A few hours old...

All dressed and ready for her hospital picture...

She was born not breathing, but it didn't take long to get her to breathe. The midwife thought that she may have just been too exhausted (like me!) or that she may have breathed meconium in the birth canal since she was there for so long.

She was also born with jaundice, so we spent 3 days in the hospital initially to allow her time under the biliruben lights. Then, 2 days after we were told we could go home, we returned because the jaundice was getting worse. After a few more days we went home...again. This time, it was snowing :) Ava's first snow!

My sweet little pumpkin!

It has been almost 12 weeks, and life is getting more and more predictable. She's settled into a routine, and has been sleeping through the night for about 6 weeks now. I got some pictures last week, check 'em out :)

More updating...

Work: After returning from vacation, work started a few days later - that's right, early August. It seems like the summer break is getting shorter and shorter.

This beginning was a little awkward because I'm hesitant about my plans for the future in this job. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my job, like LOVE it, and don't want to give it up. But maternity leave is coming soon and if I'm going to make a change, now's a very convenient time to do so. Aside from the deep emotions attached with this beginning, it's been nice to get back to work, helping kids who need assistance communicating.

My students include kids with Autism, Stuttering, Cerebral Palsy, Dysarthria, Traumatic Brain Injury, Emotional Disturbance, and other interesting disabilities. I think every child is a puzzle and my job is to figure out how to help them communicate more effectively in the school setting. This is truly my calling!

Marc: Just a few days later, like the second weekend into the school year, MARC CAME HOME!!

You read that right folks, my husband, best friend, favorite person, and Ava's daddy came home safely from his first deployment. He is a bean pole. I told him that I didn't think it was nice that he was dropping pounds and throwing them in my general direction. His come back?.... "At the rate you're going, we may meet in the middle, and maybe even cross over each other."....jerk ;) But that's my Marc, always the funny one :) He's home safe and has had the opportunity to feel Ava kick, accompany me to doctor appointments, and talk to her.

Since he's been home, he's been getting back into the swing of things, flying regularly, and other odd jobs around his squadron. He has also nearly finished his Master's Degree. He's doing his best to finish before Ava arrives...we shall see ;)

Ava: Speaking of Ava...that statement just makes me smile :) She's doing great! I'm almost 33 weeks, so approximately 7 weeks to go (which right now sounds like an eternity). She's measuring exactly right for her gestational age, and her heartbeat sounds as strong as ever. We're down to scheduling appointments every 2 weeks now, which I'm thankful for, because it's just nice to check in with the doctor and make sure both she and I are okay. At the last ultrasound that I posted about, I received some amazing pictures, but they were unable to get a good view of her face. So, I had to schedule another ultrasound (darn! LOL I get to see her again!) Check this out...

Amazing, right? Everyone, myself included, thinks she looks like Marc in this picture. I can't wait to meet her.

Toyota: We have been talking about buying a new car for a while now. My Civic was the perfect car for the 7 years I drove it, but was 10 years old. It has almost 140,000 miles, which, for a Honda, isn't the full life of the vehicle. So we are in the process of selling it. But with Ava on the way and living in a part of the US that snows, we needed to upgrade in size. We spent a weekend shopping around at a few different dealerships, thought about it for a couple weeks, looking for the best deal we could find and educating ourselves on the process of purchasing a vehicle. We decided to buy a Toyota Highlander...

I love it! There are so many features about this car that make it amazing: keyless ignition, moonroof, automatic back door, etc. This list is nice and long. This car is exactly what we need and has already come in handy. So, a few weeks after we bought it, Marc installed the carseat....an activity that's a lot more difficult than you would think.

Yay for a new car!

Keep checking back...More to come :)

Rachel's Vacation!

I did myself a favor and took vacation during the summer, when I wasn't SO uncomfortable from the pregnancy, but when she was definitely growing enough to show off the bump. And it kept my mind busy for the last few weeks of Marc's deployment.

I went home to see my family (and forgot to take a single picture). While I was there, we opened a trunk full of baby clothes my sister and I had worn. It was fun to see the clothes that are in all of the memorable baby pictures my parents have. My mom is currently in the process of cleaning, boxing, and shipping all of the clothes for Ava. I'll definitely be posting pictures of Ava in my old baby clothes...that should be fun :) Another event while I was there was shopping for a new car...but more on that later!

I also went to visit Marc's family. It was great to see them too. While I was there, they threw Ava a baby shower!

Each attendee wrote Ava a special note in a children's book to start her collection of books. I love that the letters are written to her :)

No shower is complete without a giant baby balloon!

This vacation was perfect...perfect timing and perfect locations. With Ava coming soon, I may not see these locations in the near future.

Ok, I've gone from July to October. Shame on me. Especially with all of the happy news going on in our lives these days.

Where to start????????

Here's an outline of the next few posts. I'm gonna get with it this weekend and catch y'all up!

-My Vacation

-Work

-Marc

-Ava

-Toyota

-Secret

IT'S A GIRL!

We found out on July 2 that the baby is a girl! The technician checked many times just to make sure and was very confident that it's a girl :)

This is a load-off honestly, because Marc and I couldn't agree on a boy's name...like numerous arguments on the topic. But a girl's name....that was easy! We figured out the girl's name back before he left. So, what's the name?

Ava Dori

I'm in love with this name....just like I will be in love with this girl :) Ava was a quick agreement for us. Our last name happens to be a 4 syllable name, so we agreed the first name should balance it out. The middle name, Dori, is a combination of our mothers' names...Dawn and Lori. The week before we found out, I told my dad that I hoped the baby was a girl, simply because the name was so perfect! God granted my desire.

June 2010

The month of June has been somewhat uneventful. Marc is still gone, which I've had just about enough of. He is welcome to come home aaaaaaaaaaaaanytime now. Seriously.

I did take a wonderful trip to Dallas to see my girls. Ya know, those college friends that will be friends for life? Yeah, those. I got to see those :) And it was great! It had been probably a year and a half since I had seen 'em. One of them just got engaged, so we definitely went wedding dress shopping which is fabulous, or was fabulous until my ankles were swollen and I was exhausted. It was still a memorable event with such great friends. They also held a small impromptu baby shower for me over brunch one morning. So Baby C has officially been showered on for the first time.

In baby news, Baby C's doing great. He/She spent all day yesterday kicking me inside over and over and over and over and....you get the idea. ALL DAY. That is seriously uncomfortable, even painful at times. He/She has calmed down since then, and I'm feeling much better. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Friday...day after tomorrow...to measure Baby C, make sure he/she's growing like he/she should be, and to stop calling it a he/she by attempting to determine gender! This is the big ultrasound! I get to spend approx. 30 minutes looking at the baby in 4D (4 because it's 3D plus movement). I will leave there with recorded 4D video, pictures, and hopefully knowing gender! I CAN'T WAIT!

We had our 2nd wedding anniversary on June 28! He called first thing in the morning, before I had even sat up in bed. It was a 56 second phone call, but it was perfect. Celebrating these events is hard, so all I had asked for was acknowledgement of the day, and that's exactly what he did. My parents and Marc's mom called me, too. Both my mom and his mom said the same thing..."I'm not going to say 'Happy Anniversary' because without him it's not happy, but I wanted to say I hope today turns out to be a good day." Speaking of events, Marc had his first father's day :) We are planning to celebrate that holiday when he returns, too.

Enjoy week 19's picture.

Expect baby pictures on the next post!

Whoosh Whoosh

People have been asking me how the baby is doing. I tell them "The baby's fine! I'm the one having trouble!" I've been sick for at least two weeks straight. Started as allergies, became a cold, sore throat took over, allergies to a cat got bad, and now...sinus infection.
I gave in and called the doctor today. They had an appointment for 40 minutes after I was talking to them. It was so nice! The doctor walked in, asked a couple questions about how I was feeling and said "Yep, it's a sinus infection"...duh.
However, this is an OB, so he let me hear the heartbeat, just to check on the baby quickly. It went "Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh" when he was able to find a heartbeat. The sucker was moving all over the place. As soon as he would find the heartbeat, it would disappear. Over and over and over. :) I told him that it wasn't news to me as I can already feel it moving. A LOT! It's not necessarily distinguishable as to what it is (kick vs roll, etc), but it's definitely not lying still. And that makes me happy :)

It's amazing how the thought of losing someone who is so important in your life gives you such great perspective on the rest of your life.  I can't go into detail, but everything seems so trivial today.

(No, I did not almost miscarry)

Onto the Second Trimester!

We have made it to the 2nd Trimester! Not that I had any worries during the 1st Trimester, but it's always there, in the back of your mind. It's nice to know that the chances of miscarriage now is very small. Here's the 13 week picture for your viewing pleasure!

I kinda look pregnant now, huh? Well, only if I hold my belly like I'm doing. Otherwise, my clothes clearly cover the bump. Mother's Day was wonderful...thanks to Marc. All the way from the other side of the world, he made sure flowers were delivered with the sweetest card ever. They're beautiful, huh?

I miss him.

Marc's Birthday!

So, Marc is now also 26. He gives me a hard time sometimes about being 5 months older than him...yeah...5 whole months. Well, now we're both 26. He's not here, obviously, and he said that nobody out there with him knew it was his birthday. So, no big celebration :(

Here's the big celebration!! Happy Birthday, Marc!!

Baby Baby Baby!!!

Before Marc left, we picked out a pattern for the baby's room, and I found a set of baby gear that matched. Downside...it was discontinued. There are stores still selling it, but there are others that say "out of stock." So, I bought them! See...

I LOVE THEM!! Now, all I need to do is get the furniture out of the baby's room, so I have somewhere to put all this stuff besides the livingroom.

Deployment #1

...I say #1 because this is our life! This is the first of maaaaaany.

I was a blubbering mess...not the day he left...but the week before. I work at a number of schools and spent all day Thursday driving to and from schools, but not getting out of the car! I'd get to the school and spend the entire time trying to make my red, puffy face go back to normal. It didn't work. Once he left, I cried, for about 10 minutes. Then...fine! I know... "How could you not cry when he left?" It was like the anticipation of him leaving was more emotionally draining for me than him actually leaving. (With some of that emotion being attributed to pregnancy hormones...ha!) Regardless, I think..hope..wonder if..am guessing he made it. Haven't heard from him yet, but he will call asap. So, I wait.

But, for the next few months, it's just Pippin and myself (with growing baby). This isn't the first time! It's just the longest time.

Baby news: Baby C is growing and making mommy siiiiiiick. I've not thrown up yet, but I spent all of last weekend in bed because of the intense nausea. That nausea has passed, fortunately. And since then, the cravings have begun. Baked. Potatoes. ftw. I can't get enough of them. And, as is obvious from the ticker above - coming up on 11 weeks in a few days. Some of my pants won't button, I had to buy a new bra, and there is definitely a bump!! See???

Ok, so it's not super obvious, but it's there! It used to be flat...definitely not flat now :) Well, there will be more pictures to come.

And more deployment venting posts as well! But I think I'm entitled to a few of those so watch out!!! :)

It's a baby!!!

That's right! We're pregnant! (as is obvious from the ticker above)

We were getting ready the morning we were going to be boarding our cruise. I had two tests with me, knowing that during the cruise would be the time to find out. Sure enough! Positive! My mouth dropped and I gasped. Marc asked what was going on and I held up the test for him to see. He smiled and gave me a kiss. We're going to be parents!

The baby is due November 22, 2010. There will be numerous posts to follow, I'm sure :)

Honeymoon in the Carribean!

We finally made it! We made it to our very delayed honeymoon. We booked a cruise during my spring break, and spent 7 blissful days together! The cruise was a great idea because it's the kind of trip where there is a list of activities to participate in and it is up to you which ones to enjoy.

Our first stop was in Roatan, Honduras where we swam with dolphins - like got in the water and played with the dolphins for a couple hours. It was amazing to be so close to those animals. And, surprisingly, they are alot like dogs - need alot of praise when they do tricks, get distracted by others of their kind, make friends with specific others of their kind, etc. It was fun cheering on the dolphin!

Our second stop was in Belize City, Belize, which is a relatively low income city. We took an hour bus ride to the Belize Rainforest where we hiked for 30 minutes to the Old Belize River, and tubed through ancient Mayan caves. There were stalagtites, stalagmites, and locations where human remains have been found - within just a few years. Once we were out of the caves, we floated for an hour down the freshwater river through the rainforest, at which time...it rained. How appropriate?

Our third stop was in Costa Maya, Mexico where we chose to go to a private beach. There were hammocks, lounge chairs, lunch options, beach volleyball, snorkeling, etc. We relaxed there, exhausted from the busy trip we'd had so far.

The fourth stop was in the Bahamas at an island the cruise line owns called Great Stirrup Cay. This stop was strictly for beach lounging, although all 2,000 people had access to this beach, unlike the restricted beach in Costa Maya. We relaxed at this beach as well.

Throughout the trip there were numerous sea days, during which we attended nightly shows, had some amazing food, and spent some great time together. Seven days was perfect - by the 6th day, we were ready to head home. We would recommend this trip to anyone wanting to get away. There is very expensive cell phone service and internet capabilities to use, but the price didn't seem worth it. Therefore you are secluded and "on vacation" for the duration of the cruise. The ports have multiple activities to participate in and they range in difficulty level and activity level, so there is something for everyone.

It really was the perfect honeymoon!

Catch up

Ok, I realize it's been almost two months since I posted. This isn't anything unusual for me. I have a diary, and I've had it since I was very little. Once I became a little older, every post in my diary began with "Dear Diary, It's been so long!" So, I'm not too surprised. I skipped the time of the year that included my Birthday, Christmas, New Year, going back to work, and Valentine's Day. So, there is much to catch up on.

Firstly, I'm 26...yes, that makes me older than Marc, which he reminds me of frequently. We didn't do anything special, but he bought me a beautiful heart necklace with our names and wedding date engraved into it. I love it.

A few days later, my parents came to visit (Trip 1 to Lubbock). We went to Chick-fil-a, which is a treat these days! They were here through Christmas. We had lots of good intentions about things to do while they were here. However, the snow had other ideas. We were snowed in for a few days. But, it was still fun to hang out. A few days after Christmas, Marc's parents came to visit (Trip 2 to Lubbock). They were lots of fun, as usual :) We went shopping while in Lubbock, and exchanged gifts once we got back home. Marc took all of our parents to visit Marc's plane, before he took off one afternoon. That was very cool to see what Marc's been talking about for over a year. And the snow made us rush home in order to not get stuck. Meanwhile, we took my parents back to the airport (Trip3 to Lubbock), and went shopping some more! We had plans for New Year's Eve that didn't pan out, so we went to some friends' house to hang out for the countdown. Soon after, we went home....very anti-climactic. Yay 2010! And, the next day we took Marc's parents back to the airport (Trip 4 to Lubbock). We went straight home...we'd had enough of Lubbock... LOL!

Work began a couple days later, which was kinda nice to get back into a routine. The break was fun, but crazy! A week later, Marc was sent to help with the Haiti relief efforts. He was so excited! Real-life help, real-life missions. I was a little upset, simply because I want him home, but I was proud that he could do something to help. While he was gone, I got my car stuck in the snow in our driveway, and had to call one of our friends to help me out. 3 days later, another friend was asked by one of the squadron wives to shovel our driveway...we don't own a shovel. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when he came home a little over two weeks later - just in time for Valentine's day. Valentine's day, also anticlimactic, was nice to spend with my valentine...seeing as this may not be something I have the opportunity to do in the future. I got a planted tulip, so I can keep it growing :)

There's not much new these days. Work, flying, the dog, the bills, etc. Not to exciting :) I'm trying hard not to think about it, but Marc's first deployment is just around the corner. That should be fun...ha!

The Holidays are here!

So, the house is decorated, it's cold, I'M OFF OF WORK FOR 2 WEEKS...

...and the cleaning begins. My parents (hi!!!) get here Wednesday, and Marc's parents (hi!!!) get here sometime after Christmas. Both spare rooms are hurricane disasters. And it's too cold to have them sleep outside ;) Therefore, the cleaning begins. I'm hoping to get some video of Christmas morning, and maybe other events during the season. Check back for the fun!

Pip shakes!

Marc taught Pippin how to shake!!

These are some shots from this morning :) Whoever made up "White Christmas" forgot about "White Thanksgiving"