Jordan Elaine: Official Letter Writer!

Today is such an awesome day for us!! Jordan and I decided a few weeks ago that our current Home Pre-Schooling goal would be for her to be able to write all of her upper-case letters before her 4th Birthday! Today, she accomplished it!!! It was SUCH an awesome lesson, in so many ways! Not only was it the obvious lesson in writing her letters, but more so it was a lesson in setting a goal. We talked extensively about what it means to set a goal, and what we have to do to achieve it. Jordan came to me everyday and said, "Mommy! We have to do my goal today!!!" She has worked so hard for the last couple weeks, and I'm so proud of her! We will definitely be celebrating this to beat the band! As if her 4th Birthday party this weekend wasn't enough.....:)

Teaching Jordan has always been very fun for me, and very easy as well. Jordan LOVES to learn! She thrives on learning information, remembering it, and reciting it later to practice. I hope that I am able to continue to challenge her and keep her learning! She's very musical, and has probably 20 different songs memorized. Some children's songs, but some much older for her! "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" is her favorite, and she begs to listen to it everytime we get in the car. She knows all of her letters, writes them, knows every letter's sound, and even sounds out words. She does this to figure out both how to spell a word, and how to read a word that she comes in contact with. We have to help her with putting the sounds together, but she makes the sounds on her own. We're going into the beginning stages of reading, and she's exceeding my expectations constantly! Doc and I started working with her on her counting. She's been able to count to 20 for well over a year now, so we've been working with her on 30, 40, 50, etc. She caught onto that very quickly, and now we've moved on to addition, which she seems to be enjoying as well! I LOVE that learning is so magical at this age, and I love being a part of it! We even work with her on her Spanish, which is super fun for all of us!

Her biblical knowledge is the part that we really try to emphasize the most. She absolutely loves her bible stories, and it is so rewarding as a parent to watch her put that knowledge into action. We can't see an ambulance driving down the road without her saying, "Uh-Oh Mommy, someone must be hurt, let's pray for them right now!!" She'll proceed to ask God to be with the hurt person, and lead the Dr.'s to care of them, and comfort their family. We encourage her in this, chime in with more prayer, and tell her how much Jesus loves her heart for His people. She'll smile, as proud as a peacock, and say, "Yah Mommy! I just made Jesus happy!!!" It is such a beautiful thing to see my child's heart set on Jesus at such a young age, and I pray that God will lead us to encourage her in whatever He calls on her to do!

I am competely aware that this is a shameless proud-Mommy post! And I don't care! :) This little girl has my heart in ways that I didn't even know were possible, and I am so proud of her! I can't believe that she is turning 4 already this weekend, but I am so looking forward to just celebrating her and cherishing every moment!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll update about ours in a few days, and post some pictures from the lovely lady's party :) Until then, I hope all is well!!! Love you guys!

Random Random Random

1. We're still waiting on orders. Yes, we were suppose to have them a week ago. Please pray. Please? We SO appreciate it! God will totally make this happen and ease our minds, we just have to ask! Will you ask with us?

2. I can officially feel the baby move!!! I LOVE this feeling!! It always seems to take me longer than I think it should, but when it starts, it is just magical!!! I am totally head over heels for this little flutter that I feel inside me. What a blessing!!

3. I no longer have cable :( What a sad day....however, this does 2 things: A) Helps us put even more money in savings!! && B) Gives us less to distract us from getting PCS stuff done! I am already completely ahead of the curve, and I plan to stay that way as long as possible! I know random stuff will come up, at least this way I'll be ready!

4. Inside and out, my husband is THE most handsome man I have ever seen. Hello, fabulous 5th Month of Pregnancy Hormones. How lucky am I to experience you while my husband still has to wear Desert Cami's with the rolled sleeves?? Just awesome, I tell ya!!

5. I have never been flakier in my entire life than I am right now. Something about this pregnancy just makes me a totally ditz!! Doc and I laugh at it constantly! I forget what I'm doing in the middle of it, go to the store and then wonder why I went there in the first place, forget to do simple things like put soap in the dish washer, and the list goes on and on. It's ridiculous, yet hilarious.

6. REALLY random sidenote: I HATE opening Grand's Biscuits!!! Seriously!! It's like the Jack in the Box for adults!!! Especially when you're just peeling the paper and it just POPS!! Really sudden and really loud! What a heart attack! Anyone with me on this?

Happy Tuesday Peeps!!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

It's been a super low-key weekend around these parts....how about you?? Anything exciting this weekend? Doc and I (thanks to our fabulous neighbor) had a great date night on Friday....it was a much different date night than we've ever had before, but it was so overdue and turned out to be one of our faves!! We're about 6 weeks out from moving right now, and we're trying to hoard every single dime that we can right now. We're determined to pay for this move outright, rather than putting it on credit cards and waiting for the military to reimburse us like most people due. We're Dave Ramsifying, and we don't want to use credit cards at all. That equals out to us throwing several hundred dollars out of every pay check into savings right now and basically spending nothing other than the essentials. (bills, groceries, gas....that's pretty much it!) It certainly doesn't make life fun right now, but the end will be worth the means. It's just a lesson in self-reliance, rather than relying on credit, and it's one that we want to tackle. We're not super credit card oriented, but we do have one and we do use it occasionally rather than saving and waiting to buy something that we want. That's a habit we are determined to break!

Anyway, all this considered, we had already set up childcare for Jordan for Friday night so that we could go out on a date. After much consideration, we decided not to spend the money on a meal out, even though it wouldn't have been much, it would have been completely against our principles in what we're trying to teach ourselves here. But the date WAS needed, so we had one.....at home! Jordan went to Miss Jenn's, and Doc and I hung out in the kitchen, cooked Baked Ziti, Caesar Salad, and Garlic Bread with Mozzarella together, lit the candles, turned down the lights, and had ourselves an absolute blast! We drank our favorite Crystal Lite pink lemonade out of our fanciest stemware, stole kisses as often as possible, and talked about "date night stuff"...the future, each other, child-raising, God, etc. It was awesome! And free!! I think this will become a tradition!

Yesterday we spent the day at a birthday party for some dear friends of ours' children, and we pretty much ended up just chatting with them well into the evening! Today was a great church day, and now we're getting ready to Skype with the Grandparents (and hopefully, fingers crossed, get a sneak peek at our new niece, AnamCara...and her Mommy and Daddy too of course!) Thank God for Sundays...this day of rest is much needed!!!

How was your weekend?? Anything exciting? Fun? Not fun? Anything we can pray for? I hope you all have a great upcoming week! We should (Navy willing) have a big update for you within the next couple days!!! Love you peeps!

Pregnant Lady Obsessions

Steak. A lean, mean delicious machine. MMMMM!!!

Rainbow Sherbet. Thanks Grandma, for my addiction to this delicious, amazing, low-calorie dessert! I am forever grateful and can't wait to eat some with you in heaven!

Safeway Brand Garlic Caesar Dressing - delicious!!!!

Grande Decaf Well-Stirred Non-Fat Caramel Machiatto. With Whipped.
So incredibly entertaining to hear the Starbuck's lady repeat that at Mach 40.
Thank you Diana Fuller for my addiciton to these!!
PS I have no idea what that chinese writing on the side says!

A big fat baked potato with cheese. Lower in calories than a potato with butter, and higher in calcium too! Brilliant!!

Blah blah blah.

That's how I feel this evening. Blah. Blah. And more blah. It's one of those pregnant days, where I'm just blah. I hate these days even more than days when I'm sore, or sick, or in pain. My normal personality is the polar opposite of "blah", so I just don't feel like myself when I feel like this, which only makes me more "blah". I have to be honest though.....God is making it very hard for my "blah" to hang around.....we've got a lot to be thankful for right now!!!

1. HUGE blessing on the orders front! We've been waiting patiently (Ok that's a flat out lie. I've been waiting extremely IMpatiently) for God's direction to lead us. We've been waiting during prayer time for some sort of a guidance, searching during our daily bible reading for something, ANYTHING to jump out and tell us what He wants. Begging our families and friends to pray with us. And Friday, finally, we got the "all clear" from the Lord on the plan that He's ordained for us. We've been selected for orders to Everett, Washington!! An hour and a half drive from family that we (my husband included!!!) have literally never even lived on the same side of the country as, let alone a super short drive away! We still need hard copies of these orders before we can call it official, but we should have them sometime this week, hopefully sooner rather than later!

2. We had an ultrasound at Aloha Pregnancy Care on Friday with our dear friend Alana, and it went fantastic!! The baby was measuring one day shy of our exact gestation period, and everything else looked perfect! It was such a huge sigh of relief! Though we never really thought there was a problem, it's always so wonderful to hear that from your Dr.! Or ultrasound tech, in this case! The only little downside to this day was that the baby refused to show us it's gender! We tried everything! We stopped midway through for me to go to the bathroom and jump around a little bit to try to shake things up in there and see if we could get it to move, and still, nothing. Legs politely crossed, arm above it's head (ironically in the EXACT same position I was laying in, so cute) I can already see so many differences in this baby from the way Jordan was. During my 16 week ultrasound with Jordan she had her legs wide open and was waving to us on the machine! Little Miss Personality has not changed a single bit since then! :) This child seems to have my husband's shy, quiet personality. And it's stubborness leads me to believe that it's definitely a boy! Haha :) Our next U/S is October 7th, so hopefully our little babe will be a bit more cooperative that day!

3. We are busy planning our trip to Illinois coming up in November!!! I haven't been home since we moved here 3 years ago, and I am ready to say the absolutely least!!! Neither of us are fond of the place we call home. We love our family, love our friends, and have some good memories there, but it's never a place that we will choose to live again, and certainly not a place we'll choose to raise our kids. However, after being gone for three years it will be great to take a little visit there! If my husband had his way, we would literally never set foot in Illinois again, so this took MUCH finaggling on my part to make this happen. If this trip is miserable, I can promise that it will be his last trip to Illinois. Well, I guess promise is a strong word....you never know what God may have in store for us. We have a million things to do there, and a million people to see, and lots of delicious Midwest food to eat!!! Hopefully it will all go smoothly! Will you pray for that with us?

I hope you all have had a great weekend! We'll keep you posted on the orders situation! Hopefully in just a couple days we'll have a firm copy of orders, and then the REAL craziness will begin!!!! Love you all!

16 Week Dr.'s Appt.

Does that SERIOUSLY even seem possible? 16 weeks along? Already?? This child isn't even born yet and it's already growing too fast!!! Craziness I say!

Yesterday was my 16 week Dr.'s Appt. with my NEW and IMPROVED Dr!!!! I LOVE her! LOVE LOVE LOVE her would describe it more accurately! She's wonderful! Supportive, sweet, upbeat, encouraging, helpful, I could go on and on. Leaps and bounds from my appt. with the Nurse Practioner 4 weeks ago, and I couldn't be more thankful for these answered prayers! On to the good stuff.....

The baby looks perfect! Yes....I said "looks" perfect! We weren't suppose to have an ultrasound until 20 weeks, but the baby was so active that Dr. Coleman couldn't hear the heartbeat, so she went ahead and did a mini-ultrasound. Jordan was with me, and she was SO excited to get to see her new brother or sister!! The baby was jumping around like crazy! It was adorable! I'm still not feeling the movement yet, but I will soon! Unfortunately, Dr.'s are not really as well-trained on sonography as you may think they are, so she wasn't able to give us a gender :(
HOWEVER......We'll find out the sex on Friday!!! Here's how....

A good friend of mine works at a Christian Counseling Center for pregnant women over in Kaneohe Bay. Pregnant girls who are wanting abortions come to them, and Alana (my fabulous friend) is a counselor there. Her job is to get these girls to choose life for the babies, whether it be adoption or just a little encouragement in their new journey. She has an amazing testimony, and if there is any woman qualified to do this job, believe me, it's her! There's pretty much nothing she hasn't lived through. She's a wonderful woman, and I love her to death! She is in need of pregnant bellies to train her new nursing staff and counselors with, and since I volunteered, they will be ultrasounding me on Friday to determine the sex! HOW AWESOME!!! And what an amazing blessing! And more so, what an awesome opportunity for me to serve God! To volunteer to be a guinea pig for a place that is doing AMAZING work for the Lord?? Just wonderful! Again....what an amazing blessing!

I will be sure to keep you all posted on that, and if for some reason I don't announce it, don't be sad! If they can't say conclusively one way or the other, we may just wait until the 20 week one to confirm!! :) I'll let you know if that happens!

Happy Hump Day all!!!!

Smiling in the Midst

Happy Labor Day peeps!!! I hope yours was much less stressful than ours! Pardon my disposition....The truth is, we had a great weekend together, we just have SO much going on!

Doc is taking a precalculus class right now, that thankfully is almost over! I say thankfully for everyone's sake! Doc HATES math, but is extremely curious about it and really wants to know all that there is to know about it. Insane, right?!?! That's my husband for ya! LOL He's very intelligent and very motivated to learn, so he chooses to torture himself with things like calculus that he knows will take over his life and make him miserable. However, his determination is remarkable, and like I've said from the day that I met this man, he can do ANYTHING that he sets his mind to. The Doc Henebry that I dated 6 and 1/2 years ago couldn't do Geometery without my help. The Doc Henebry I'm married to today is doing calculus like a champ! I'm so proud of him!! Only to God be the glory for this, and we are thankful for all that he is doing in our lives!

Doc and I found out on Friday that we have been denied orders to all three of the places that we had put in for. This was disappointing to say the least. None of the places that we put in for were places that we were jumping up and down about, and it wasn't the location we were excited about. It was an answer we were wanting. Where will we be moving in less than 2 months? Where will I be giving birth to this child at? What sort of work environment will my husband have? All important questions, still unanswered.

During the course of the last year, Doc and I have dealt with SO much crap with the Navy. At no fault of his own, doors seem to close more often than they open. Doors to things like the Officer's Package that he's wanted to put in for 2 years now, that no one seems to "have time" to help him with. Doors for Orders. Doors for Shore Duty, that though my husband has been very vocal that after 4 deployments he's ready for a break from the Fleet, he is still being told that wherever we are sent (regardless of the fact that it will be Shore Duty and Non-Deployable) he WILL be deploying. Infantry Corpsman are in extremely high demand right now, and regardless of the fact that we will be in a clinic, he is pretty much guaranteed to get plucked out of it and sent on one if not two deployments with an Infantry Battalion during our 2 year "break" of Shore Duty. And after that, it's right back to the Greenside for more deploying. Switching jobs in the Navy is not an option for Corpsman, because they need them too desperately right now.

We pray over this situation daily, and right now, we're feeling the hand of God lead us to other paths. Nothing in the world scares me more in this economy than NOT having a job. However, if God's Will for us is NOT this, then He will be faithful in making a way for us. We trust Him completely in this. To say that we are not scared would be a complete lie. Two adults. One beautiful almost 4 year old daughter. Baby on the way. 2 Kittens. All our responsibility to take care of. It's kind of one of those things where the saying "Feel the fear, and do it anyway!" comes into play. The fear is there, it just won't stop us from following God's Will for our lives.

We are considering many different options right now, from staying in the Navy, to getting out completely, to switching branches, and so on and so on and so on.....Will you pray with us? Pray that God make's a way for us. Pray that God makes it known to us and opens and shuts doors to show us his path. Pray that our daily bible reading will speak to us *LOUDLY* with God's instructions. And lastly, but certainly not leastly, please pray that neither of us lose our minds in the process! :)

I titled this post "Smiling in the Midst" because that's what I find myself doing daily. This situation can be so overwhelming sometimes, but God is SO much bigger than this, and he reminds me daily, in the most awesome ways! Like today, for example. We barbecued with all of our Ohana (our bible study group is called Ohana, which is Hawaiian for "family"....and they really are just that!) at the beach for a little boy's birthday party, and we felt so incredibly loved and supported by every single one of our friends there. We had dinner on Friday with other friends, and had such a blast playing Catchphrase and laughing. We went to the mall with Jordan this week and spent over an hour at Border's just reading books to her and laughing, and then went downstairs to Motherhood Maternity where my husband INSISTED on buying me a new outfit, just because. He showers me in affection during times like this because HE wants ME to feel secure. This is HIS career on the line, and all he can think about is his family. Now regardless of anything going on with the Navy, how could I not smile at that? He's incredible!

Here are a couple pictures from the last couple weeks! One of our beloved Pastor Rick and his wife Sue that just moved, and the other of the most stylish little lady in the world :) She insists on choosing her own clothes and accessories, and as you can see, she's pretty into it......:)