Update on Ava

One word to describe Ava would be ACTIVE! This girl is non-stop, on the go and into everything. Let's just say I enjoy her naps more than she does right now--it's the only time I can get things done around here! Ava has started a Mom's Morning Out program 2 days per week now and seems to enjoy herself--at least that's what the teachers tell me. I take this time to get our grocery shopping and errands done. Ava is not too hip on being strapped into anything right now, no shopping carts, no strollers, no car seats, so shopping with her is quite the adventure. She is so happy with her freedom right now and loves to do everything by herself. If she sees you do something, she is going to try it herself. One big thing is that we are potty training her and she's doing pretty good with it. Hopefully she will be out of diapers/pull-ups soon.

Ava's health seems better. We took her for an upper-GI test and spine x-ray a month ago. She didn't have anything obstructing her GI tract so she has been diagnosed with acid reflux for now. The medicine seems to be helping a little, but she still throws up every now and then. She coughs and gags and gets the hiccups every day, so we are still researching her problems. Her lower back has an indentation visible from the outside and looks almost mis-shapen from an injury of some sort. The x-ray didn't reveal anything internal, so the doctor is not worried about it. She is receiving physical therapy for her muscle development and walking issues and therapy for her speech as well. She is really starting to talk a lot more--it's fun to watch her transforming so quickly. Here are some recent photos.

Chillin in my crazy glasses!

I found Emma's old winter hat and mommy's oven mits. I am ready for Kansas Winters!

Daddy and Ava watching Emma cheering!

Sisters!

Ava actually wanted this bow in her hair because Emma had one for the game. Of course she took it out before we even got out of the garage on the way to the game!

Update on Emma

Well, Emma turned 6 on August 28th and had a great party here in Wichita with her friends and classmates. I talked her into having her party in mid-September so we would know more people from school and our neighborhood. Emma loves 1st Grade and all the new things her school has to offer. She rarely eats cafeteria food, but loves riding the bus to and from school. I wasn't so hip on the idea of the bus, but we are the last stop before the bus gets to school in the mornings and the first drop off in the afternoons. The school is exactly one mile from our house, so she's only on the bus for about 3 minutes tops! The bus driver is very strict, so of course, I love her! Here are some photos of our big girl!

First day of school with daddy, her favorite person!

Emma's birthday party at a place called Pump it Up! The kids had a blast!

Emma's smiling big before her Cheerleading Camp. She got to cheer at a local high school football game last Friday night--she LOVED it!

Future cheerleading squad!!!

Learning to fish at clinic with daddy. She actually caught a little fish that day and now wants a pet worm to keep in her room, go figure, not a fish?

Updates on the House Here in Kansas

Finally, a chance to post a few things. First, I will update you on the happenings with the house and getting settled and then I will tell you about the girls! We jumped right in here with painting the house, as I mentioned in the previous post. The painters took one month instead of 2 weeks and it was painful! The house was a mix of really bad colors of paint and wood work, so we had the walls, trim, doors, and even the ceilings painted. We lived upstairs while the basement was being done and in the basement while the upstairs was being done. Unfortunately, the basement only took a week and the upstairs took 3 weeks. After the pain of living in the basement and having our entire upstairs wrapped in plastic (no kitchen was not fun!!!), we also got granite countertops put in the kitchen. We are now getting estimates for new cabinets--the cherry ones we have now don't even blend with the hard wood floors--I think the previous owners were color blind. We did get a great deal on the house, so we still feel like we are staying well within the market for this area and adding value to the house. Here are some photos of the not so much fun of remodeling and living out of pocket.

Emma lounging on the blow-up mattress in the basement.

Ava scratching her head and going, "Are these people gypsies or what? First New Mexico, then Kansas, first upstairs, now down stairs, what is going on?"

This is the upstairs before the painting began. Lots of tape and plastic everywhere. We even had to use the refridgerator in the garage for 3 weeks and do our laundry on base. We kept reminding ourselves, that at least we had a house and to just get over it. It did make it a little easier to be thankful for the things we had and not life's little inconveniences. We feel blessed that we could afford to have the painting done in the first place.

Our master bedroom before the new paint. Lovely yellow in some rooms and blue in others. Dark cherry finish on the woodwork in some rooms and white-washed pine in other rooms???

Our bathroom before the painting.

Settling In Slowly in Kansas

Finally a post, right? Where do I begin??? First, I will say thanks to my hubby for the previous post. I must admit I have had my frustrations with going through all this as a "single parent" and we have had some "colorful" discussions about things! I appreciate Scott recognizing my efforts throughout this process--this has been the hardest challenge that I have faced yet--previous life as an Air Force officer included! Emma loves to play my computer while Ava is taking a nap, so I hardly have time to post or answer emails--I apologize!!! I have so much to say, but only a little time to share, so here are the high lights:

--Emma has been amazing during the move and is so excited about everything. She loves the new house, neighborhood, church, and soon her new school. She starts school on August 18th--she can't wait!!! She has kept me going when things seem to overwhelming to take.

--Ava has had the worst time adjusting to the move. She has attached more than ever to me, for obvious reasons, I have been the only one here for her. She has endured a move from the orphanage to the hotel in China, one house in Albuquerque for 3 1/2 months, a week in temporary housing in Albuquerque, a week in temporary housing in Wichita, and now 2 weeks in a new house in Wichita. Her sleeping hasn't been good and she is still throwing up at least once a week. I am taking her to our new pediatrician here in Wichita to finally get her some help with her digestion and walking problems. I am so excited to get her some consistent medical care. I have also enrolled her in a Mom's Day Out program on Wednesday mornings so she can be away from me for a few hours and so I can run a few errands on my own. She will start going in September.

--Scott finished his training at Altus 2 weeks early and is now a certified KC-135 Instructor Pilot and the new Director of Operations for the 349th Air Refueling Squadron. He completed his check ride on Friday and reported to work in the squadron the following Monday--so much for any time off to help me unpack boxes. So far he is enjoying the new job and has already connected with several folks that we were stationed with here in Wichita from 1996-2000.

--As for the house, well, we had planned to paint the wood work and walls ourselves, but there was no way since Scott went straight to work and I can't do it with little people running around. We hired a company to paint and they got started last Wednesday. They started in the basement and are still working down there today. They plan on starting on the upstairs tomorrow or Wednesday. We will live in the basement while they paint the upstairs. The color of woodwork and paint in this house were terrible, so we are basically paying them to paint every inch to include trim, doors, walls, inside closets, etc. They will be in our house every day for at least 2 weeks. With all this going on, we haven't finished unpacking boxes or getting our household in order. What's the point when we'd have to take things out of closets and off the walls to paint! We can't really settle in until they finish the job.

I can't find my camera, so no photos for now--sorry! I must say that we miss everyone in Albuquerque so much. For all my gym rat buddies--I did find a gym, but it doesn't compare to being there with you all in Spin class! I know we will get settled in here eventually and be able to keep you all posted a little more often.

Gene

Controlled Chaos

Gene has sketchy internet access at best so I am going to seize the opportunity to hijack the blog. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures but all the pretty girls are still in Albuquerque and I am here alone in Altus. Pictures of me just wouldn’t measure up to your expectations so this is TEXT only.

I can’t even begin to tell you how incredible Gene is. She is more incredible than the Incredible Hulk and more Iron Woman than Iron Man. I haven’t seen either of those movies so if they were bad please forgive the reference.

I was able to land at 0200 Thursday morning, debrief my flight and head out of Altus around 0400. That’s 4:00 am. That put me pulling into ABQ around 11:00 after driving all night so I was pretty much useless Thursday while the packers were at our house. Friday the 4^th, I was pretty useless too. But Gene got the packers going on Thursday and they got about 60% of the house packed. Friday, we had a wonderful dinner over at our friends’, the Browns’, house. They didn’t want us to miss out on the 4^th so they had us over for a cook-out. A big thank you goes to them for upholding the tradition of the “military family”. Saturday, we continued cleaning and organizing getting ready for Monday and the return of the packers. Well, guess what? Sunday Mary, Paige and I got sick with a stomach bug. Well that’s pretty crummy but you know those things don’t stop until they have made their rounds to everyone in the house! So, Monday morning Ava wakes up at 0600 screaming. And she screams and screams and screams. Guess who is the only person she wants to hold her? Yep, she’s sick and she only wants mommy. I was able to pry her away for a couple of hours to get her to take a nap with me but when she woke up and realized again that mom wasn’t there…SCREAMING! So it’s 10:00 am on Monday and the packers are showing up and Ava will only be held by mommy and I have to leave to go back to Altus. So superhero mom takes over and spends the next 6 hours with a 20 pound 2-year old clutched around her neck packing up our house…BY HERSELF! Thanks again to Mary and Paige who took care of Emma and to wonderful, beautiful, Emma who is the best kid in the world for not making this any more painful. During this packing day (Monday), Gene also had to marshal the troops from our former house into temporary housing where they will stay until Friday morning when they pull out of Albuquerque. That by itself took 4 or 5 trips back and forth between the two houses getting food out of the refrigerators and clothes and bedding, etc. transferred to the temporary house. That gets us to Tuesday; remember I said those stomach bugs have got to make their rounds? Yep, now Gene has got it. So she spends Tuesday sick with the packers trying to finish off packing our house. Today, Wednesday, the movers showed up (3 hours late) and started loading. Gene is still sick so she is fighting nausea and muscle aches all day while working with the movers. Then the movers leave at 6:30 pm and Gene still has to clean the garage and house. She finally got to a stopping point around 7:45 pm. There is still more work to do tomorrow. She has to move some stuff like propane tanks, etc. that the movers won’t move and clean out the refrigerator. Finally, she has to let the cleaners in at 0800 tomorrow (she keeps such a clean house they probably won’t know what to clean) and then do the final house inspection tomorrow at 2:30 pm. It’s time to rest right? NOPE! Friday morning, she will load the car and the girls and drive 10 hours to Wichita. I will meet them Friday in Wichita where Gene and I will attempt to paint the entire inside of our 2200 sqft house in 2.5 days before the movers show up with our stuff. When the movers show up, guess what? It’s time for me to leave again. I still have a couple of weeks of training left at Altus so I will be there during the week and (hopefully) home for the weekend if the weather holds out and I don’t have to fly on the weekends.

I can’t even begin to tell you how strong and resilient Gene has been through this whole process and our whole marriage for that matter. I always seem to be off “flying” or trying to get ahead (or caught up) at work while Gene is packing, moving, un-packing and getting ready to pack again. I have to thank God because he gave me the most incredible woman on the planet.

I just have one last person to thank:

Bekah (Gene) thanks for being my wife!

Getting Ready for the Move

First, my Mom and Paige are helping me through this move thing and I couldn't be doing this without their help--THANK YOU!!!! Well, we have our pre-move inspection for base housing today and the packers start this Thursday. We haven't seen Scott since Father's Day, but he's off for the 4th, so he gets to come home this weekend :). Of course, he gets to help me take down the storage shed and do a little organizing for the packers who will show back up on Monday. We are closing on the new house in Kansas through the mail and things will be final on the 8th. Scott will go back to Oklahoma on Sunday. The packers continue on Monday and will finish on Wednesday and load the truck on Thursday. Our final inspection in base housing is Friday, the 11th and then we are on the road to Kansas. We hope to meet the moving truck in Wichita at our new house so we can do a "door-to-door" move. If things go as planned--bonus--very rare, but it could happen :)!

We have been having a few "last" playdates with Emma and her friends. She seems to be doing okay with the move. Ava of course, doesn't have a clue what is coming over the next week or so! She is pretty flexible so far, so hopefully it will not be too hard on her.

We will be staying in temporary base housing here in Albuquerque and in Wichita while the movers do their thing. The internet is scetchy at best in both places, so I will do my best to post and check email during the chaos. Here are a few photos of recent activities with the girls.

Happy Birthday Ava!

Our Ava turned 2 years old today! We celebrated her birthday at her favorite place for french fries--yes, McDonalds! Fancy, I know, but she LOVES french fries. I made her a cake and we had a small family party at the McD's on the base. Her favorite thing was the card that Emma picked out for her--it was one of those music cards and it sang Happy Birthday to her when she opened it. I bet she listened to it 100 times tonight. Please enjoy a few photos of the big day.