That's Not Yogurt

Wyatt is getting to an age where he is asking for everything he sees on commercials, which I generally ignore. He really gets a kick out of the crush cups commercial (posted below). He and Eric pretend to crush things with their fingers and he's always asking for them.

Today, while I was picking up my own yogurt, I decided to get him some of his own. He was so excited and enjoyed every bit of the yogurt, which of course, I loved. I said to him "that must be yummy yogurt" and he replied "no mum, it's not yogurt - its fruity flavor". :-)

Drum roll...

We are offically a diaper-free household! Wyatt was potty trained about 6 months ago, but was still wearing a diaper to bed.

He has gone 7 nights without a diaper and so I don't forsee a trip down the diaper isle ever again! YAY!

For The First Time In Forever...

I am feeling really positive about everything. Of course, I am grateful that we have buyers for our house (I AM holding my breath until May 15th when we close though.) We have a place to live in Kansas that is nice, albiet small. I have a new (well new to me) car that I LOVE.

Today Sandi told me the address of the home they put an application in for - guess what? Its on the same street as mine! Ages ago we told the guys we wanted to live in the same neighborhood. Then as the search for housing became difficult we said the same side of town and then eventually just the same town! So to live on the same street is just incredible! AND! Yes, there is an "AND" - we found out that our neighborhood actually feeds into the Manhattan school district and not the Riley school district (15 miles away and poorly rated). We actaully looked up the bus stops and there is one on our street. Tony is going over to Ft. Riley this week end to sign the lease and put down the deposit. We will officially celebrate once he returns with the lease!

Sandi and I are like family and we rely heavily on each other as such. Having her close by makes the thought of teh next deployment better for both of us.

Update

We took Wyatt to the endocrinologist last week and he is now in the 10th percentile vs not even being on the charts when he began growth hormone therapy a year ago. She took x-rays of his hands and ran some bloodwork to make sure his bones and hormone levels were all o.k. and everything checked out. Out of all our Drs I enjoy seeing her the most because I never get any rude surprises and she is always positive about Wyatt's progress.

While we were there a lady came in and gave Wyatt a doll and a toy "shot" to give to the doll. She said the role playing should help releive some of his anxiety. He's been giving us a lot of trouble at shot time lately. While he was getting his blood drawn he asked for the doll and squeezed it tight. It was like he thought the doll understood how he felt. I was surprised. I had thought the idea was kinda cheesey - shows you what I know! :-)

Eric left for Ft. Rucker last Thursday and it was like he left for a deployment. The week leading up to his departure was the same - him preparing everything he'll need and trying to make sure things are squared away for me here at home. Of course selling the house added to our "to do" list. Then finally, I just wanted him to leave and get it over with! The anticipation of saying good-bye can be draining. Then I went through the numb stage that initially seems to hit me and now I am going through the "I want to speak to an adult" phase. I am a little stir crazy and lonely. It takes me a little while to adjust being alone.

I went shopping today and bought some fresh fruit and veggies and a whole bunch of frozen meals. No more cooking for me. I suppose that is one pro to being on my own again. I've put on 5 lbs since Eric got home and am hoping to get it off while he is gone.

I am currently shopping for a new car. My Taurus is running rough again and it seems like every time we take it to the shop we have to spend a year's worth of payments on it to fix it. It has 100k miles on it, so I suppose it has an excuse these days. In any case, I don't want to drive through Kansas with Wyatt in an unreliable car. If it were through a state that was full of tiny towns along the way I would take my chances, but Kansas literally is farmland for miles and miles. We haven't had a car payment for a while and so the thought of one makes my tummy turn. Right when I think we are finally going to get ahead something always seems to come up. I've been driving myself crazy researching reliabilty and safety ratings!

The sale of our house seems to be going smoothly. We are waiting for someone to come out and do an appraisal. I am also negotiating the terms of renting the house back from them after we close. Nothing major has happend yet and I hope it stays that way.

I hope to book flights to Alabama in late May/early June to see Eric and break up the 3 months. Right now I am waiting to see what his school schedule will be - we don't want to visit him during night flights or anything like that.

That's it for now. Just cleaning out the house and trying to sell our junk on craigslist and just gernally prepare for the sale and move right now.

New Place in Kansas

We found a duplex with a 2 car garage, patio and fenced backyard that allowed pets - all very hard to find. We ended up getting a 3 bedroom 2 bath with 1 living space. We've already begun making a list of things we need to sell before the move in order to fit into it. We're also going to have to buy some proper garage shelving to store everything. BUT all in all, we are happy. We like the location, its on the western edge of Manhattan (the largest town in the area) so Eric's commute will take 15-20 minutes. I can access post amenities, but live away from the military. There is also a cute neighborhood park close by.

What else do I like? umm - the yard won't be overwhleming to take care of when Eric deploys - its a good size but still smaller than what we had and no rock landscaping to keep weed-free. The range has a flat cooktop and an overhead microwave to make up for the lack of counter space. There are no stairs :-). There is a separate laundry room leading to the garage with a closet for storing dirty shoes and wet coats etc.

So I guess you could say we are happy with what we got - AFTER we got over the initial shock of how expensive everything was compared to Colorado. We decided to rent so that we did not have to stress the next time we move posts. I hate that we will live in less for about the same in KANSAS! But I am over having my fits. I just have to be happy and let all the bad stuff slide...

Eric Finishing Our Fence

We got $2900 less than our asking price but they said we had to finish the fence and paint the blue wall in Wyatt's room. I am painting the his room when it gets warmer and I can open his wondow. Poor Eric had to go outside in the cold and finish our fence this week. He's so damn handy! The neighbours also went halves with us so the fence was only a fraction of what it would have cost if we had to pay a contractor.

Spring Break Blizzard

Poor Wyatt. I was hoping to take him to the zoo and instead he got to dig in the snow.

Recent Cakes

Things Are Moving Along

We have our house inspection today and we are going to Kansas on Sunday to gt Eric signed into the new post. I have several appts to look at places to rent and hope to have a lease signed by the end of the week.

I am still having troubles finding a place to live! There are so few that accept pets. I even offered one place a $1000 pet deposit and they still declined our applicagtion based on the fact that Cleo is not declawed - even with 13 yrs of renting/owning history and references!

Right now the 2 front runners are small 3 bedroom duplexes that are about 1000sq ft smaller than we live right now. They are the only things I can find that are in our price range and accept pets. The first one is in a fantastic neighbourhood with the best elementary and preschool in town. I'd have yardwork and its only 1250 sqft. The second one is $100 less a month and only has a 1 car garage, but includes yard maintenance - but it feeds into a school that only got a 6 out of 10 for state testing standards. The other school got a 9 out of 10. Its also further from post...but closer to downtown Manhattan.

So...I guess I will see which one speaks to me! It may come down to which one is available!

We Have A Contract On Our House

After 6 weeks and only 3 people coming to look at our house, we have a contract! YAY! We did counter offer and, hopefully, tomorrow we will be finished negotiating. We had it on MLS for 3 weeks and dropped our price 10k and were starting to stress at the lack of activity.

If all goes well we will close in mid May and then we will rent the house from the owner until July 1st. Eric finishes school on July 22nd. So it gives me time to get our things moved and get unpacked before he comes to Kansas.

We leave this Sunday to go back to Kansas so that Eric can in-process on base. We'll be there for the week and then we'll come home and Eric will leave the day after Easter to drive to Ft. Rucker for school.

I am hoping the contract on the house is finalized by the end of the week so that I can find a place to rent in Manhattan and sign a lease agreement.

If everything goes smoothly, I should be feeling much relief - house sold, a place to live in Kansas. :-)

Red Hat Club Around The Corner?

Lately, I have felt like having more fun with my appearance and also a lot more girly then I have ever been. Last night I went out with my hair curly with a big teal flower in it! I am still terrible at chosing accessories. I thought about earings or a larger, colorful necklace or bracelet and I couldn't do it - I just felt over done. But I did get the flower clip and a black purse with a teal stripe on it. :-) Don't ask me what's going on in this picture - I have no idea.

Change of Command

Eric's Troop had a change of command today. I made the cake. Its the first time I have made a helicopter out of fondant or tried to do the digital camoflauge. I've been getting braver with my creations and, luckily, the person that asked me to make it gave me full creative liscence. I try to just say thank you when I get compliments. But I have to tell you something that drives me crazy when I look at this cake - 1.) the icing on the bottom layer was not smooth, 2.) the patches are not aligned 3.) the top of the top layer was messed up from me relocating the helicopter. So there you have it! My confessions!

Mummy its your show...

Wyatt turned on the t.v. and turned around to me with a solem face and whined "mummy its YOUR show". I looked up and saw that the news was on and went back to what I was doing. Wyatt continued "its Barack Obama".

I stopped breathing for a second and asked him what he just said - he repeated "its Barack Obama". I was in shock! It WAS Obama!

When I told Wyatt's preschool teacher, she explained that they had talked about the Presidents of the US when it was Predient's Day and put up a poster of the newest President. Eric and I were amazed! But if you ask Wyatt WHO Barack Obama is, he will tell you "he dresses nice". LOL

Quiz

I took a quiz on FaceBook and this is what the answer said:

The country
You are tired of living in a crowded place where there's too much concrete and not enough green. You want to live out in the country, preferably somewhere with a barn, a river and lots of wide open spaces where you can unwind and enjoy the quiet.

Isn't that funny?! Its almost like I was set up! In any case, I went back in and retook the damn quiz and I got Paris the next time. MUCH BETTER! Hilarius!

Wyatt's First Skateboard

At The Playground

Hanging In There

We recently drove to KS to check out our next post. I had done a lot of research prior to going and felt positive about the trip. HOWEVER, once there, I felt like I was suffocating! There are so many farms that I felt trapped. I felt anxious. I felt like I had no options other than the tiny town of 50,000 people to seek refuge.

Even though the town is cute and the people are friendly, I found myself holding my breath and repeating to myself "its going to be o.k., its going to be o.k.". But the truth is, I felt this pit in my stomach growing as we tried to find a home to rent that would suit our needs. Due to the fact that Manhattan, KS is home to Kansas University, most renters are college students. This makes the land lords very weary of people with pets - hence, it seems that 95% of them will not accept pets and those that do charge a premium or require your cat to be declawed. My cat is 13yrs old, I am opposed to declawing. I find myself in a situation where I am considering it just so we can have a nice place to live.

Its also been difficult to find something within our housing allowance. So I agreed to consider post housing. I'd prefer to NOT live on post just because I like to have a life outside the military and Eric's job. However, the housing situation in Manhattan was looking bleak so we checked out the quarters we qualified for. I looked passed the tiny galley kitchen, I looked passed the fact thare there was one toilet, I looked passed the fact that there was street parking only, but I couldn't look passed the tiny bedrooms and tiny closets - we couldn't fit our dresser in the same room with our bed! When I asked the lady what people did about the lack of closet space, she said people set up clothing racks in the basement. Yes - there was an unfinished basement where the washer and dryer would be...

Then we went to look at the newer neighbourhood. One of the housing officers referred to this area and the post ghetto when talking my girlfriend. I think that just about sums it up. They were townhomes and it seemed like everyone was crammed into each street - crap bursting out of each home, toys strewn all over the yards. The floorplans looked like they would accommodate us though.

Lastly, we went to see the newest housing - it was gorgeous! We were told we'd have little to no chance of getting into that housing. Why? Well, because they are giving that housing to people that are being moved out of homes that need to be updated. I still keep hope that we might get lucky.

We then looked at the tiny little town on the other side of post. Strip clubs, liquor stores, pawn shops...some of the main drag was cute. There is some affordable housing in this area and places that accept pets though...lucky us!

Then I found out that Wyatt won't be able to go to preschool unless I pay for him to go because there is a shortage of spaces available in Manhattan - even though he has a speech delay! We get free preschool at a wonderful school here in Colorado. I am ticked off! Wyatt has two more years until kindergarden! Also, we're told that some of the schools are so crowded that they are not accpeting new students and that once I do find a place to live, I should call that school to make sure they will take Wyatt for the grade he needs. I haven't even bothered to start calling around about Kindergarden yet - it just makes me sick.

Oh - did I tell ya about the medical care? I'll be driving 4 hrs return to Kansas City for Wyatt's opthalmologist, geneticist, endocrinologist, ENT and the cleft clinic. The good news is that I will get reimbursed for my mileage. We also have the option of staying with Denver providers and making the 7hr drive each way...an option I am considering, but not favoring.

So...basically I am hating the Army right now. I have to leave my beautiful house, my son can't get into preschool and I have to live in a tiny town in the middle of Kansas. SORRY!!! I JUST CAN'T BE POSITIVE RIGHT NOW! I AM PISSED OFF!

Also add Eric leaving again for 3 months, being told to expect another 12 month deployment sometime after March 2010 and us more than likely losing money on our house and ummm...yeah...I'm not a happy camper...don't try to talk me out of it! It sucks! I am allowed to say it sucks! I'll get over it sooner or later and make the best of it. For now, I just want to scream until I pass out!

Christine's Bridal Shower Cake, Favors and A Baby Shower Cake

Wyatt IS Potty Trained!

Wyatt hasn't had an accident for a couple weeks. The mystery cars worked! He's even going on the big potty so I don't have to deal with his yucky training potty anymore! I am so happy!

Now to get him though the night dry. Right now he wakes up somewhere between 2am and 5am asking to be changed because he is wet. We never had a problem with him waking up in the evenings before - so this phase needs to get over and done with SOON!

I also forgot to say that Sandi introduced the "Spiderman Club" in order to encourage Wyatt to poo on the potty. She told Wyatt that when he did the right thing that Spiderman would call him. Later that day, we were at home and Eric was in TX, and Wyatt went to the toilet and asked me when Spiderman was going to call. I had our friend, Andrew, call and pretend to be Spidey and congratulation Wyatt for pooing on the potty. It was hilarious! Wyatt was over the moon.

One More????

Eric and I are in a debate right now about whether or not to have one more child. We both love our family so much and can both see the joy in having another baby - boy or girl! However, I would need to get pregnant between now and April in order to have the baby before he leaves for Iraq again. That poses two issues -1. me hormonal and possibly nausious while looking after Wyatt, moving to KS alone and dealing with our house. 2. Eric would leave very soon after the baby was born, which, in itself sucks but, if the baby has Wyatt's genetic issues it will be added stress for me looking after a newborn on my own.

I am also worried about affording college for Taryn in 2 yrs and then trying to save for Wyatt's college and retirement - how can we afford a third?

So there ya go - one more or not? I've told Eric no more, but he's not convinced.