Plan of Action

Wow, I totally can't believe that we have been in Kansas for almost 2 months now. The time has surely flown by so far. Disclaimer: my tone might very well change after winter arrives and I'm stuck inside from all the snow. They said last winter was really LONG! If there's only one good thing I could say (which there are many) about this area is they sure do a great job at welcoming the military to town. I guess when you have such a huge turnover both in August and December (the school starts twice a year) you really benefit by reaching out to the families who are here. I've never experienced such a welcome like this before or an appreciation for what we, as the spouses, endure for our husbands career...which sends me off on a tangent.

I was reading the article about closing Joint Forces back in Norfolk and one persons comment about healthcare angered me slightly. She said why should military spouses get to keep their health insurance through the military when their spouse dies, she says she doesn't get to keep her spouses insurance (civilian) if he dies. Well, hmm, have you had to live without your spouse for 6 months to often a year, repeatedly. And not just lived without them, but sent them into a warzone? Have you moved all over God's green earth for your husbands career and sacrificed your own career to advance his? Sure there are many other things that could be said as to why we get to keep the insurance benefits, but really spouses tend to be very under rated sometimes. Sorry for that little rant.

So I digress, we had this wonderful thing here on Saturday called PAIR Day. It was an opportunity for new families to see all the programs/services that are offered on post as well as in the community. We got lots of info, free stuff and they even had bounce houses, face painting, etc for the kids. It was super hot, but wow, we've got tons of things we want to do now. Which leads me to the title of this entry, Plan of Action. I've written this post nearly 50 times in my head, but haven't taken the time to sit down and write it out until now and there's a reason. I have 1 short year here in Kansas to achieve many things and I believe we were sent here to accomplish many of them. So in no certain order, here is what I feel the Lord brought us here for and an idea of what I'd like to do in this year, well now 10 months that we have left.

~Spend more time playing and interacting with my kids and husband and LESS time on the computer.
I have allowed myself to become addicted to this world of instant access to email, facebook, friends blogs, etc. This has deterred from my time with my family and it's something I can't sacrifice any longer so...I am forcing myself to stay away from the computer and not be on it as much and therefore doing more with my family. I'll still be on it, maybe first thing in the morning and at naptime and maybe before bed to check in with everyone, but the time will be kept to a minimum.

~Calm down! As any parent of toddlers knows it's easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated. I know I'm predisposed to get anxious and stressed therefore leading to unnecessary yelling at my kids, something I've been very convicted of lately. So I'm taking time outs for me, deep breathing, counting to 10 and it's working. Not only those things, but having cut out a lot of my time filler just by moving here has brought my stress level down considerably and I'm finding myself to be a much nicer mommy in the process.

~Spend more time ENJOYING Caleigh. I so longed to have a girl and figured it was never in the cards for us since Jaret comes from such a long line of boys, but we were blessed, thank God quickly with the way my pregnancies go, with our little girl. Unfortunately we got off to such a rocky start with the colic and you all know she's our spirited child, so that has caused us to butt heads a lot. I have to start learning her personality better and spend more time with her. Which we've had lots of fun lately with her girly antics of tea parties, baby doll playing, kitchen playing, dress up, etc. I'm looking forward to our mornings together while Jonas is at school.

~2 of the first 3 had 'Spend' in them, which brings me to #4, SPEND less.
Most of you who know me know that I have a serious shopping addiction, but it's fueled by not being able to stay in the house for an entire day...it drives me batty. The easiest thing I turn to is going shopping. Thus God's humor in bringing us to Kansas. Not only is Target 30 minutes away, but so are most other places I enjoy shopping. Now, don't get me wrong, Leavenworth has got a lot of great little quaint shops that I am enjoying visiting, and Walmart is less than 5 minutes away...we had been averaging 2 trips a week just getting our house in order. However, life (rental properties, misc. expenses, etc) gets the best of us and we need to cut back and live more simply...so my mission is to find and create fun things to do at home so I can be content in WHERE I am (should have a point all of it's own) and for those times we need to get out of the house, find free/cheap things to do with the kiddos.

~Get into a cleaning routine...hahaha. I've tried this before and I'm trying it again, but here I sit during naptime, when I should be cleaning the bathrooms typing this post...hmm refer back to numero uno, less time on the computer. Seriously though, each day gets a simple chore, cleaning bathrooms, vaccuming, laundry, etc. I'm loving laundry with my new steam washer and dryer that comes complete with a delay start. I put a load in before bed, time it to start at about 6ish a.m. and by the time I get up and have coffee, my first load is ready for the dryer. I'm usually done all laundry in the house by lunchtime.

~A rather selfish one, get caught up on our scrapbooks. You see it's selfish because it requires ME time and it's my creative outlet/what I do for fun/my break. I haven't even gotten halfway through Caleigh's first year, Jonas' second (who incidentally turns 4 in 2 weeks), our third anniversary, etc. I mean, our wedding album isn't even done, but that's taken the back burner for now. The difficulty in doing this is the downsizing of our house here...we have to share a small room for our office since Jaret is in school and needs studying space, a guest room and my craft/sewing room. I don't have a big flat surface to scrap on or room to spread out my things. So, I took a few nights and preplanned pages, from the paper down to the embellishments. That way, when I have a chunk of time I can just grab a bag and get to work.

~Along the creative lines are to sew more things for the kids. Right now I'm sewing Jonas a Toy Story shirt. I so wished I would've paid more attention to my Granny while she was still with us. Following a pattern when you don't know what the heck they're talking about isn't easy. I saved a bunch of my favorite shirts from the kids first years to make a quilt for each of them and have patterns ranging from pants for Caleigh and dresses with a stack of fabrics to keep her clothed in them for 2 weeks straight, to an American flag quilt pattern that I bought at this super cool quilt shop here in Leavenworth. Here's to a long winter I guess...

~Lastly is all about being local. I want to indulge in all this delicious KC BBQ that is around us and visit all the local attractions and others within a reasonable driving distance that we can take advantage of being in the Midwest. Here's a few for you...
*Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead-Planning on crossing this one off when family comes for Jonas' birthday. In fact, we're spending the next week or so doing all things farm. We are having a good ole fashioned barn raising Rhinehart style today. We're making a barn out of cardboard boxes, an idea I got from a book I have on using boxes for imaginary play and all the boxes we have from our move. We have some farm animal crafts to make and some farm books to read.

*Crown Center-We've already been here for the Clifford exhibit, but there is a restaurant called Fritiz's that has trains that deliver your food to your table, the Hallmark visitors center, with great activities for the kids, a dinosaur exhibit, etc, etc. Did you know KC has the most fountains second to Rome?

*Explore some of the local towns like Weston, Atchison, Overland Park, etc.

*See the Great Midwest Balloon Fest in September when we have some of our visitors.

*Go to Abilene when my parents visit to learn about the history of the old west and see where President Eisenhower spent his boyhood years and visit his burial place. For those of you who don't know, my Grandfather worked for the President on his farm in Gettysburg and my Mom and her siblings grew up playing with his grandchildren. I'd love to see more of his life, already having some of his post-presidency years as a part of our family and knowing how much my Grandfather respected him.

*I'd love to take trips to the Lake of the Ozarks and Mount Rushmore, which I visited in sixth grade, but Jaret's never been and obviously neither have the kids.

So, that's my POA for the time being...it may change as other things come to mind. I plan on being involved in things here, like I was back home, but with more of an emphasis on my family and what I need to do for them.

Funny little thing to leave you with...we went to a neighborhood (meaning everyone lives in our subdivision) bible study associated with our chapel on post last week. I tell you, these funny ways God works, 2 of the other families just came from VA Beach too!!! Huh?!

We're looking forward to the month ahead full of visitors. Jaret's parents and aunt arrive in a week and a half to help us celebrate Jonas' 4th birthday, a week and a half after that a girlfriend from work, Allison and her daughter Layla come for a few days and then a week later, my parents. Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it, but a happy tired!

Until next time!

Seeing God in the little things

Or maybe they are big things. So some of you reading my blog may read this title and not want to read one line further, but it's hard to ignore that my God isn't at work here in our lives. And yes, I said MY God, read on to find out why.

So, one thing you ALL know is my apprehension in moving here, though it's part of this gig we're in called the military, it's not an easy feat. I mean, why God are we being torn from the very community that you've rooted us in and being moved to the middle of nowhere with no family to speak of and Lord, I know you created it all, but Kansas?! Really, Kansas? Don't you remember that there's no ocean in Kansas? Well, within a day of finding out this would be our new home a friend from church said, "hey, I was born and raised in Leavenworth." Okay, open mouth Angie, insert foot...sorry to offend you Carrie! She began giving me a wealth of information about our new home. Okay, then I find out that there is a family living here that is friends of many of our friends in the church and they put me in touch with her. She gives me another vault of information. Then, we find out there are all these other connections to Leavenworth. Jonas' preschool teacher just had a student the year before who moved here and she put me in touch with his mom, who gave me more info AND when I attended spouses day here, she saught me out and introduced herself! We have chatted with friends of friends and found out that actually, we do have family just about 3 hours away. Okay, God, I'm listening now.

Well, with all that coming about BEFORE our move here, I resigned to go with the "God knows what He's doing and He's paved the way for us so far" attitude. Nonetheless, leaving all we know and love in VA was torture, but sometimes that is what we have to endure for experiencing the glory of God.

Hmm, we pull up to our new house and I look across the street at our neighbors house, they have a Jesus fish on their van, good sign! A few days after we moved in, their 9 year old son went knocking on doors throughout the neighborhood looking for some kids to play, great icebreaker. We'd noticed they had a younger boy also, maybe about Jonas' age. HA, he IS Jonas' age and they have become little buddies in no time at all. The couple, they're great! We've attended church with them and LOVED the church, just not the drive, it's 30 minutes one way. We've enjoyed celebrating our first holiday with them, gone to the zoo and began our 1 year Kansas experience with them. Thank you Lord for providing us friends and thank you friends back east, who prayed for just that.

So, I'm desperately seeking out a mom's group or women's ministry...Tab, you've sure got a good thing going there! It feels like I keep coming up dry. Then, I remember an old friend told me about Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC-the military has acroynms for everything) so I look into it. They have childcare...so we get up early and head over to "post" another new thing I have to get used to, the Army lingo. I step into this huge brand new chapel and am immediately greeted and told which way to take my kids and where to find this PWOC group I came in search of. WOW...this group knocked my socks off! The ladies ranged from young to retired and were friendly from the moment I stepped in, heck, they had me taking offering on my first visit. I even saw some faces and heard some voices, that made me look twice. I could've sworn I saw and heard Linda Crabtree at this meeting. Their worship time was great, followed by some fellowship, and of course food and then on to studying Colossians. The chaplain's wife lead the study that day and she ROCKED it! The thing that struck me the most about her words was finding out who YOUR Jesus is. So often we as women look to someone else to tell us how to do something. If life isn't working, we ask others for how they do it. "How do you do quiet time, that's what I must be doing wrong?" "How do you pray, I must not be doing it right?" And other examples of these God seeking things that we feel we must do. And that's not what it's about. It's about who He is in your season of life for YOU personally. As she said, "getting up at 5 a.m. to do quiet time before my kids get up isn't working for me, it's too much stress, I can't do this." That's not what it has to be...maybe your quiet time is singing praise songs in the shower or something else like that. So this week, I'm in search of MY Jesus. I walked out of there refreshed, excited and happy to be where I am.

I'm finally in a group of Marine wives, though we're few (and yes, proud too) and we've planned a full social calendar for the year, including dinner out tonight. I met one spouse who is a scrapbooker, YES! And we're planning on going to a convention here in October. Which, for all my Hampton Roads friends, the year I leave they bring a scrapbook convention. It is August 27 & 28 at the VB Convention Center.

I keep hearing from you all, 'how are you doing all this, you sound so busy'. That's the thing guys, I'm not. I've never been more relaxed and at ease than I am right now at this very moment! I take a nap just about every day, I'm finding myself getting less and less frustrated at the kids (I didn't say I'm not frustrated), I'm able to find niches of time to do the things that I want to do, like scrapping, reading books that I actually enjoy (not anatomy textbooks) and doing a study on Ruth that all my Tab friends are doing back home. Life is good here! I still miss my home on S. Ridgeley like crazy...that's where our hearts are, but this is okay too! The Lord paved the way, brought us here and has met us in our need. This is who MY God is, He's in the details, the small ones and the big ones.

A new start in a new home

First, THANK YOU to everyone who came to our going-away/my 3oth! It was a wonderfully memorable evening with the finest people in Hampton Roads (at least in our opinion). Still in shock that my best friend from college came from Pittsburgh with her 3 week old baby girl, so that we could meet while she was still so brand new. More importantly, LaBeff's you sure know how to throw a party!!! We are so grateful for your generosity and felt so special. Thank you!!!! We're glad we got to spend our last night at your house.

We made it to Kansas in one piece and all 5 (Woody included) made it alive, but barely. Let's recap, shall we? Day 1, planned to leave by 10...haha, we didn't even have breakfast till 10:30. Saying goodbye to our best friends/family, the LaBeff's was much harder than we anticipated, no not really, we just didn't allow enough time. I love you Lady LaBeff and I miss you like crazy! We finally got on the road at around 1 after finishing packing and final touches. The fun begins...Jaret's cap on his front tooth from chipping it several years back decides to fall off while we're driving...nice! Okay about another hour down the road I smell Caleigh's diaper, so pull off within 2 miles and had the shock of my life. It was fingerpaint, or so she thought. It was all over her legs and face...blech! Alright, so we stop for gas and a quick snack to only have Caleigh throw it up 45 minutes down the road in the pitch black mountains of West Virginia. Guess that fingerpaint was toxic, ey? Arrived safe and sound in our hotel and slept like rocks!

Day 2, pretty uneventful compared to Day 1...the day of reckoning came on Day 3. Granted, we'd traveled in the beginning of June to visit family and had been out of our house for almost 2 weeks...we had all had it with the instability of PCSing (Permanent Change of Station for you non-military friends). Caleigh was terror...she wouldn't play with ANYTHING in my bag of tricks, wouldn't watch movies, nothing! She screamed, and even when she was singing, she was LOUD! I couldn't wait for naptime. We arrived in Kansas at around 4:30.

We are so glad we had purchased walkie-talkies before we left because they kept us awake when one got sleepy and provided for some good entertainment.

We've been here in KS for a week today and it's been busy. Our truck arrived just in time for my birthday and our movers the next day. We're slowly finding a place for everything, but also taking time each day to explore our new home. We've met 3 of our neighbors within the last 3 days, everyone is military here and super nice. I thought we came from a huge military town, but man, here you sure feel it. There are moving trucks EVERYWHERE!!! The base, opps, I mean post, is beautiful. I have to get the army lingo down. There are lots of kids in our development, even a few little boys Jonas' age. As they say, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." We are definitely in the country, I feel like I'm back in Gettysburg, but I'm loving the more wholesome lifestyle here. I can send my kids to the backyard and not worry. People go out of their way to be friendly to you. I love the opportunities we have to expose our kids to while we're here. In fact, instead of unpacking boxes, we've already planted a garden. The kids can't wait to see their seeds grow and want to check them everyday. Talk about a watched pot. We're excited to be here, but miss our home. Thanks for all the prayers ya'll have been sending up for us, they're working!

Well, Jonas' is upstairs screaming and tomorrow is a big day...night!

See you soon sweet Virginia

Whew! Saying goodbye is never easy, saying goodbye to the community we have here is next to impossible. With the busy schedules we've had the last few months and the hectic chaos of the last few weeks, there hasn't been much time for emotion, well maybe a few moments here and there. But now, it is imminent.

Jaret and I moved here almost 7 years ago, not yet married. After living here for 2 years, we moved into our "home." Here we became husband and wife and welcomed our 2 beautiful children into our family. Along this road though, something greater happened. We found a community of friends that we have come to love and rely on.

It all started on S. RidgelEy. Just a few short weeks after moving into our house, Jaret deployed for 6 months. I knew NO ONE. Little did I know we had just moved on to the best street in all of Norfolk. Donovan's, you watched over me, gave me your phone numbers and told me to keep them by my bed for when I got scared in the middle of the night. At Christmas, I was invited to my first Stewart Christmas party where I really got to know all of you. As I shared this with Jaret, he was shocked. We'd not experienced such a welcome here in Hampton Roads before. Still not knowing how much we'd come to love and connect with you, life went on.

Around Easter, Jaret still deployed, I came to Tab Church. Once he returned, we started to attend regularly, along with BILD sessions on Wednesday nights. Here's where our life in Norfolk changed forever. We soon found out that we were expecting our first child, soon to be followed by the threat of miscarriage. That night was my Ladies Bible Study, a Beth Moore study. I shared my fear and threatened miscarriage with the ladies in my prayer group, led by Diane Seltzer. They listened and prayed for me. What really struck me was having Linda Crabtree, a woman who I lovingly admire, have the women who experienced miscarriage and any others who felt led to come lay hands on me and lift up me, Jaret and our baby in prayer for healing and healthy pregnancy. What a difference it made. But the bigger movement of prayer happened 29 weeks later when Jonas arrived at 33 weeks and was taken to Virginia Beach General's NICU to stay with his angels there. The prayers that were sent up on our behalf from not only our neighbors, our church and our family and friends, but how that circle radiated times 10 to people who didn't even know us, were answered in a mighty way and our son made only steps forward, not back. During this time, we were brought meals by neighbors and the church family. The Davis girls announced his birth and homecoming with colorful messages drawn across our driveway. Our neighborhood welcomed him with a baby shower. Every family had a hand in helping us figure out what to do with this new life we'd been given. Miki, Theresa and Nancy~you were there to give me advice, support and rest during my early days of motherhood. In fact, Davis Family, you kept Jonas so much for us, he really grew up with your family as well as ours.

During this big moment in our life we became involved with 2 other groups/friends. First was the Barnes Family. Another Marine Corps family, which around here is hard to come by. The friendship that was forged between Robin and I was one of mutual understanding and common interests. The more we got to know one another, the closer we became and would soon end up sharing big parts of our lives with each other. We also got involved in our first CARE group led by Alan and Kim Wilson. We learned so much from our time with their group, especially about what it means to be a part of a community. Sadly they didn't live on S. Ridgeley (the best street in Norfolk) and moved out of Norfolk. And we were picked up by Mike and Chris Milligan's CARE group.

It wasn't long before we were expecting Caleigh and again our place in this community was strengthened. Early in the pregnancy I became friends with Karen LaBeff. Though her daughter Zoe, and Jonas had been in the nursery together, we hadn't yet gotten to know each other until now. Karen, too, became pregnant, as did my friend Robin that I previously mentioned. Karen and I would now have 2 children, both very close in age, Jonas and Zoe are only 9 days apart. It was still early in our friendship, but what started with simple conversation has blossomed into a friendship between families, one that doesn't even seem like friendship, but rather the relationship of a family itself. During this pregnancy, I also met a kindered spirit, Kara Neall. God surely strategically placed these 3 women in my lfie at the right time. In the coming months, they would come and care for me and Jonas, visit with me and bring me treats while I was confined to bed rest. Our friends in the Milligan's CARE group got together and prepared us over 20 meals to stock our freezer to help Jaret during my down time and for after Caleigh arrived. It was because of this community that bedrest was bearable for our entire family.

As we prepared for an "on time" arrival of our baby girl, we enlisted the help of a gentle woman, Theresa Bryant to be my side at the birth. Thoguh she tells me I didn't use a "birthing method" because Caleigh just about fell out, she was a big part of my success at natural/unmedicated birth. She saw me through my greatest pain, quickly followed by the best reward, my healthy, term baby girl and she covered us in prayer soon after. Again, our wonderful neighbors welcomed our newest addition with chalk drawn messages and a baby shower on Mother's Day~what a gift.

Most of you know that after having Jonas I finally heard the calling of my life~to work with preterm babies. When Caleigh was 4 months old, I went back to school to become a nursing care partner, which I couldn't have done with Kara and her willingness to care for my 2 babies. I was soon blessed with a job at Norfolk General Special Care Nursery. In my second day there I was confronted with a situation similiar to Jonas' and was given the opportunity to do what I set out to, and would continually get to do so over the next year and a half~to show love, understanding of where they are and how hard this journey is and allowing them to share emotions with me and relate to parents. Not only did I get to fulfill my purpose in life, I was introduced to some amazing co-workers, who I leave as great friends. I've learned so much from all of you, you've given me such encouragement on my journey and you've been a friend that has enriched my life in so many ways.

You all have celebrated our children's birth, subsequent birthdays with us, shared holidays together and enjoyed each other. Now the dreaded time has come to say goodbye...or see you later. There have been many times since recieving our orders that I have thought about this moment and how I wished it wouldn't happen. But I know that God has a plan for us in Kansas, and that the bonds we have built here will cross the state lines with us. You, each of you, have become a significant part of our lives. We are thankful to have been built into such a strong community. We leave a piece of us here with you and look forward to returning here when all is said and done (and hopefully a time or two in between).

Though the past months, I've cried many of Sunday mornings, worshiping with all my friends at Tab, these last few months have been beyond crazy between the consignment sale, trips out of town and the ever stressful anatomy and physiology, it wasn't until about mid-April that while having a conversation about saying goodbye at work that it hit me right between the eyes--literally. I'm leaving so much that I love, all that I am comfortable with. I've gotten to know so many of you intimately well, so many I've admired your faith from a distance and there's many of you I wish I'd had more of an opportunity to learn about. But each one of you who may be reading this has made an impression on my heart. One that I don't take lightly and that cannot be erased. Our roots in this place we call our "home" run very deep because of you and we already long to be back here in sweet Virginia.

I pray that our paths may cross again soon. I plan to regularly use this blog so that I can keep you filled in on the adventure we're about to begin. This book isn't closing, it's just the beginning of a new chapter.

"May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other." Genesis 31:49 Today's New International Version

Moving again...

Okay, I am really disappointed with WordPress and their layout. I'm deciding after checking out many friends blogs that this will be home to my blog. I'll be updating with my new set of Project 365 soon.