Army life

Some of you may know that Greg was supposed to get out of the Army last May. He got stop-lossed (his guys got deployed, so when that happens in a war-time situation, everyone has to stay in the same job they were currently in, even if they were just about to get out, or relocate to another post). When he was planning on getting out, he did a lot of interviewing with different companies, trying to get a good job in the Binghamton area so that we could move closer to the place we consider "home", and be more of a local presence and support in our church. There really wasn't much out there though in the salary range we were looking for, and on top of that, the more Greg thought about settling into a civilian job, the less attractive it seemed.

All his life, Greg's wanted to be in Special Forces (SF), but since it requires lots of training and tons of deployments, he dismissed the idea when he decided to marry me and start a family. I always knew that it had been his dream though, so at different times when he sounded wistful about his choice, I've reminded him that if he ever wanted to do it, I'd be completely behind him. It's more important to me that he has a job that fulfills his sense of purpose and keeps him interested than that I get to live near my family.

A few months ago, Greg told me that he's been seriously thinking of going SF and staying in the military to finish out the last 15 years of his career....and then a few weeks ago decided that was what we were going to do.

The way it looks right now, we'll go to Georgia for training possibly in September for 6 months, then from there it all depends on what happens next. We could end up anywhere. All in all, it's hard, but we're both completely at peace with the decision, and it seems to be the best thing. As things continue to transpire in our near future, I'll be sure to give the updates.

Baby

Baby
Originally uploaded by faithdarling.

These are the actual footprints of a 20 week old baby -- just one week younger than our baby is right now.

Eating Playdough

Once a month I host a Stay At Home Moms Meetup group at our house (sahm.meetup.com). This time I made some edible peanut butter play dough for the little people (a recipe I found online of peanut butter, honey and enough powdered milk to make it a dough), and it was a big hit. Andrew soon discovered the joys of eating little bits of it as he was smushing it around, and today we discovered yet another use for it. Greg has been down with the flu, so I've had to be extra creative with Andrew or else we end up watching an endless parade of The Donut Man. So today I got out the clay and once Andrew got a little bored with it, I pulled out a bag of Cheerios. He is currently consumed with finding all the Cheerios I pressed into the lump, pressing in more himself, eating them, etc. He's been fascinated by this little game for about half-an-hour now, so I feel like a genius.

Hunger Strikes

I have never been so hungry in all my life. Well scratch that, I suppose I have been this hungry, but it was when I was pregnant with and then nursing Andrew. If my stomach wasn't being so smushed up into my lungs, I'd be eating as much in one sitting as Greg does. And I haven't gained a pound yet! Actually, I lost 6 pounds or so first off, and I've just now gained them back. It makes me feel like I'm just chewing things all day, but not actually processing anything. AGGGHHH!

Every day now I can feel the baby move. Right on schedule, the motions are getting stronger and more pronounced. It can hear now! An interesting thought. When I was pregnant with Andrew, I was a little wierded out by that at first, but then I realized that it's not like having a regular person shadowing you all the day long, but....well I suppose I don't really need to explaine. Anyway, that's the news, folks. See ya.