Playing Catch Up - Dec 2011 - July 2012

Well as usual it seems as though I have gotten behind on my blog.  LOL  It has been a busy and stressful 6 months full of ups and downs and changes.  That all being said I will do my best to do a quick re-cap with the important stuff and really attempt to keep up again (don't I always say that!?  LOL).  I'm also going to include photo album links as I go  :-)

DECEMBER / CHRISTMAS 2011 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

We got snow on Dec 23rd so that was pretty exciting!!

The kids had a great Christmas and Daddy loved that they are getting older and have cool toys he can play with too!  LOL

JANUARY 2012 - Click here for PHOTO ALBUM

 Jocelyn conducting story time

 Big twin hugs  :-)

 Ryder helping Jocelyn snap her backpack

January brought new hopes and dreams with the new year.  More than anything we were hoping for a plan of action.  Were we going to stay in the Army and if so what were we going to do?  Were we going to get out and go back to the civilian world?  If so where would we go and what would we do?  So many questions we needed answers to.  For the last 3 years we have felt like we've been waiting for the next thing to happen and it's been frustrating and exhausting.  When we went into the Army we had certain expectations and so far none of them had really held up.  It was very frustrating and we really had to do some major thinking about what we wanted to do and how our decisions would best suit our long term goals.  This year is Nick's last year in his Army contract.  So a big decision year.  Also full of potential changes which we have been waiting for!!  We cannot wait to get out of here.  LOL  SO we went over all of the options we had at the time.  We decided to look into re-classing to a different MOS and give the Army one more chance.


FEBRUARY 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

February was pretty quiet.  Working on the re-classing situation and Nick was in and out of small Field exercises.

MARCH 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

My sweet little Ryder - growing up too fast!

 Walker's adorable smile in his Spongebob jammies

 My pretty little Jocelyn

 Jocelyn and Ryder - LOVE this picture

 Decided to trade in the van for a great deal on a Ford Explorer with extremely low miles!  Love it!

 Decided to invest in a Bounce House - best investment ever!  LOL

 Adorable picture of Walker

APRIL 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

RYDER TURNED 2 on April 3rd!!!! 

 Happy Birthday little man!

On April 20th my Grandma Sanne passed away.  :-(  This is a picture of her from when she was around 18-20 maybe?

 Got the swimming pool up for the first time end of April!

April was a BUSY month!  First of all Ryder turned 2 years old on April 3rd!  I cannot believe he's 2 already!  Time is going too fast!  We had a fun birthday party for him and put to use the new Bounce House which everyone loved!  :-)  The next week my husband got the big V surgery.  While we are so thankful and feel so blessed for all of our children we decided we have our hands full and we're done.  :-)  More time to devote to the ones we have.  :-)  I can't take hormonal birth control anymore.  It gave me horrible PMDD and let me tell you that is the most awful thing I have ever experienced.  I cannot even begin to explain the horror of not being able to control your emotions and thoughts.  There were days I would just sit on the kitchen floor and cry uncontrollably.  Once I got off the Pill it helped a LOT!  More to come on that later though....  Anyway so Nick volunteered (with a little coaxing) to get "fixed" so I wouldn't have to worry about hormones anymore.  :-)  April 12th (which funny enough was Ryder's original due date) he had his surgery.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad.  That weekend we were able to Skype with my Grandma Sanne!  She wasn't doing too well and had been admitted into Hospice.  She really liked it there especially compared to the hospital and she seemed to really be doing better.  It was so wonderful to be able to see her and her beautiful smile.  One of my favorite memories from that Skype call was her showing Jocelyn her freshly painted red nails.  My Grandma always had her nails done so nicely and it was just so her.  LOL  Well Friday, April 20th my Dad called me and told me that my Grandma had passed away early that morning.  It broke my heart and still has me in tears thinking about it.  I love her and miss her so much.  We were in hopes that Nick's unit would give him a few days off so that I could fly up to Omaha (and him stay here with the kids) to be with my family and pay my respects at her funeral.  Alas, it's the Army.  :-(  His unit was scheduled to begin their big Field exercise that Monday and they didn't feel they could let him take the time off.  To make it worse I couldn't talk to him at all (no cell phones allowed out there) and he was out there 2 weeks straight the first segment.  That was a VERY hard 2 weeks.  I don't know that I have ever felt so alone.  I cried a LOT.  Then I found out when he came home for a weekend that he was only 20 minutes away and sat around that entire week doing nothing when I could have been at the funeral.  To put it mildly I was livid.  I don't think I will ever forget or forgive his unit for their lack of consideration.  I'll be very glad to move on.  Anyway - I'm still a little angry.  ;-)  So onto May.....

MAY 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

Walker and Jocelyn - SO cute!

 Daddy's home for a weekend after 2 weeks in the field (getting ready to go out for another 3 weeks.  :-(  ) so we all tried out my new Velata set!  SO yummy!!

 We all missed him so much!!  The kids spent lots of time like this.  LOL

 Our friend, Christy, came over while our hubby's were in the Field to enjoy each other's company and dinner.  She brought her new baby boy!  Instant baby fever set in!!  LOL  Especially after seeing how wonderful my children were with him.  Awww why did we do that V surgery!??  Oh yea because 3 toddlers at one time is enough.  LOL  ;-)

May - well let's see.  We kept pretty busy to keep our mind off the fact that Nick was gone all month (except one weekend) and we weren't able to talk to him at all.  I HATE that part of the field.  No phone or email contact is just nuts for that long especially when they are only and hour or so away.  SO we kept busy.  After the first 2 weeks Nick got to come home for 1 1/2 days.  We definitely took advantage of that weekend and did lots of family stuff.  Then he went out for 3 weeks.  That was a rough one but I started trying to get out a bit with the kids and had friends over.  That really did help.  :-)  Amazingly they finished early and got to stay home when they came home for Memorial Day weekend!  YAY!  During that month Nick did a lot of thinking out in the field.  We had really been going back and forth on staying in the Army vs. getting out and at one point we were really leaning towards getting out.  In the end we decided to put in his application to re-class to Prime Power (12P) .  After a lot of pros and cons lists and discussions we decided this would meet our long-term goals the best.  We both think that it is a really good fit for Nick as far as his background in Engineering, love for Math, and his personality in general.  Hopefully we will be right!!  LOL  We had a few things to do for the application so we got started on that right away.

I also decided to expand my Scentsy business.  Scentsy has started to branch out with some new brands.  Their first is Velata.  I decided to give it a try with the start up kit because it was such a great deal!  Velata is a special fondue warmer and premium Belgian Chocolates.  I LOVE it!  I will only have an actual Velata website until July 31st because I've decided just to sell it manually through my workstation but if you are interested you can check out my Velata website until July 31st.  After that you will have to contact me directly and I can mail / email you a catalog and I can submit the order for you.  You can always keep track of what is going on with my Velata Facebook page .  I also have a Scentsy Facebook page if you are interested.

ALSO during the month of May I discovered some issues I was having personally.  Back in January I started having a lot of pain and I actually ended up in the ER for an entire day complete with ultrasounds and CT scans.  They found absolutely nothing wrong with me even though I couldn't stand up straight and I could barely walk and the big time pain meds they were giving me barely touched my pain.  Well it turns out that I was just ovulating.  Lovely huh?  I had been in pain for almost a week at that point.  Once I ovulated I started feeling better.  I also started having PMDD problems again even though I wasn't taking any hormones.  Awesome right?  Starting March/April time I started having night sweats and by April and May they turned into hot flashes and night sweats.  I also started not just having PMDD right before my period.  It was ALL month.  It let up slightly a week or so AFTER my period was over but then of course ovulation pain set in and then I ovulated and then the PMDD set in again (and my cycles are all over the place).  Let me tell you this was NOT fun especially with my husband in the field.  After a lot of research I discovered a book called Female Brain Gone Insane (sounds funny I know but it described me to a T and was very helpful...and made me not feel so insane LOL).  Pretty much from my research it looked like I was definitely in peri-menopause.  Lovely!  And I hadn't even turned 38 yet.  I should have known I might hit it early because when we first started trying to get pregnant with the twins they did a lot of testing and they told me my eggs were "old".  Pretty much I was in my early 30's at that point and my eggs looked like they were in their 40's.  Fun times.  I'm still amazed Ryder is here.  LOL  SO I started taking some of the supplements from the book.  The one thing that has done AMAZING things is the 5-HTP.  I could tell a huge difference the morning after I took it.  My moods felt more balanced and I didn't feel so out of control.  I made an appointment with my primary care doctor in hopes of getting a referral to gynecology for some help for both the peri-menopause emotional/mental issues as well as the severe ovulation pain.  The DR was very nice and ran some tests and confirmed from both my experiences and my bloodwork that it did appear I was in peri-menopause.  I decided that I wanted to go ahead and get a hysterectomy.  I had put it off when it was suggested before (as treatment for the painful ovulation) because I really didn't want to go into menopause with 3 toddlers.  HA!  Joke is on me.  LOL  I'm already heading that way and I am not having a good time with it at all.  SO right now that is the plan.  Unfortunately the first appointment I could get with Gynecology is July 31st so it's been a LONG wait and right now I still have 2 weeks to go and I really would like to get in there.  I am SO done with female parts.  LMAO  Thankful for giving me babies but I have had so much trouble with them!!  LOL  So....I went into June a bit there so I'll move on to the next month....  ;-)

JUNE 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

I got my hair cut and layered

Jocelyn got her very first hair cut!  She loves it and she looks SO cute and grown up!  I cried.  LOL

We moved Ryder in with the twins and converted his bed to a toddler bed

Pictures with the kiddos - celebrating my 38th birthday!  - Me and Walker

Me and Jocelyn

Me and Ryder

Yummy BBQ with friends - Smoked Bacon Wrapped Brisket and Smoked Chicken Legs (had some smoked sausage also!)

Our first Army good-bye.  :-(  Anna (on left) moved back to New York since her husband is getting out of the Army.  She actually just had her sweet little boy this morning!!  :-)  Christy is on the right.  :-)

Father's Day Cards

Nick turned 30!!  Getting to be an old man!  ;-)

Biggs Park Splash Park

 June was a busy month as well but much better since Nick was home!  :-)  First off was my birthday!  :-)  June 12th I turned 38!  Wow - way too close to 40!  LOL  And since I'm dealing with all this menopause crap I really feel old.  LOL  Nick made it a very nice day for me though and we went out to dinner and made sure he took some pictures of me with the kids (I'm always complaining there are never pictures of me because I'm always behind the camera  LOL).    Next up - Father's Day!  Fun and relaxing day at home mostly.  Then came Nick's 30th birthday!  :-)  Old man now!  ;-)  Also that was a busy week in Army terms!  We finished up Nick's Prime Power application, he took the BMST (required for this MOS), and submitted the application.  :-)  Then the 23rd Block Leave started and we got 2 weeks straight of Daddy time!  :-)  YAY!  Much needed after that last Field.  We enjoyed a lot of family time.  Didn't go anywhere but a visit to White Sands to see some friends and the Splash Park a few times but it was some much needed R&R.  We also decided to change some things around since Ryder had been climbing out of his crib.  We decided to be really brave (and slightly crazy) and move Ryder into the twins room and move all the toys and tv into his old room and make that a playroom.  We also converted Ryder's crib into a toddler bed.  It went ok for the first day or so then it got nuts.  From the start we put Walker and Jocelyn into the playroom for naptime since they just watch a movie and play quietly now anyway so Ryder still gets a good nap.  BUT bedtime got out of hand.....moving onto July....  ;-)


JULY 2012 - click here for PHOTO ALBUM

Jocelyn loves to push the boys.  They look so cute!  Even if the boys do really need hair cuts  LOL

They had a blast swimming in the little baby pool and even seemed to enjoy it better than the big one.

After a month of difficult bedtimes (2 hour long bedtimes sometimes!!) I decided to move Jocelyn into the playroom since it was usually her and Ryder causing the most trouble at bedtime.  That has helped SOOOO much!  The boys still get crazy sometimes but bedtime is usually 10 minutes - max 30 minutes instead of 2 hours.  I'll take it!  LOL  Walker still comes in here for naptime.

Friends came over for a BBQ and we got the bigger pool out and this time the kids had SO much fun!

July has been a pretty good month so far!  We found out on July 6th that Nick got accepted into the Prime Power program!!!  :-)  Finally a decision has been made and we have a direction.  THANK GOODNESS!  AND he got the January class which means we'll be moving to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in December!  :-)  Only 4 1/2 more months approximately!!  :-)  We will be there for one year while Nick is in training.  After that we will be moving to either Fort Belvoir, VA, Fort Bragg, NC, or Hawaii!  :-)  We are so excited to begin our next adventure and get out of the desert!!!  LOL  Other than that I am anxiously awaiting my DR appointment on July 31st.  I have been in a great deal of pain this entire month.  I'm pretty confident that my endometriosis has come back with a vengeance and that is what has been causing the ovulation pain.  Unfortunately it is also now causing me pretty bad back pain most days and also cramping.  I've also gained some weight and I don't know if it's hormones or what but it's pretty fast gaining and it's frustrating.  I'm trying not to stress about it - just eat healthier and do more exercise.  I gained 5 lbs in 13 days if that gives you any indication how fast I'm gaining.  I cannot wait to get to the DR.  Unfortunately we will probably have to wait until we move to Missouri before I can get my surgery done because I don't want Nick to use any leave time for me to do it down here.  I want us to be able to use the Leave time to move earlier SO I'm hoping the DR can give me something for the pain and be able to help me with the moods as well.  The 5-htp does really help though.  Anyway - that's about where we are at this point.  Kids are good.  Growing like weeds.  We're starting complete potty training (no diapers) for Ryder probably sometime this week.  We're almost out of diapers.  SCARY!  But it's time and he seems ready.  I'm hoping it's not too bad.  So that's where we are.  :-)  Sorry for all the woman stuff but honestly that is kind of what this blog started with so I don't want to feel guilty sharing it here.  It's something that I've found very difficult to talk about but hopefully I'll find some relief soon.  In the meantime I will enjoy my husband and munchkins and start getting this house ready to move!!  WOO HOO!!!  :-)  And hopefully keep this updated better  ;-)