Things, they are a changin'

I realize it's been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize. I spent the month of June and part of July visiting friends and family in California. David was training in Colorado for June, but was able to join me for two weeks in July. We had a nice vacation and were glad to spend time with friends and family for a little while. Let me just say, I can't wait to be back home for good. Going back and forth is getting tiring. Especially when you drive with dogs and a cat for five days.

Things here are progressing. I'm getting bigger and the baby is doing well. No complications to speak of. I failed my first fasting blood sugar (1 hour) test and had to come back in for the 3 hour glucose test. I did that on Thursday, and have not heard from the Dr's office yet, so I'm assuming no news is good news. I'll be really shocked if I have gestational diabetes. I doubt that I do. Other than that, she is moving around more frequently and it's nice to feel that. I just can't wait to meet her, and wish that David had more time with her before he leaves. We have no dates yet on when he is scheduled to leave, but all we know is that it is sometime in October. Let's pray it's late October and not early.

We've found a place to live in Canton, only 5 miles from the campus. I'm really excited about it, and we got to look at it for the first time yesterday. It's a big house, with 4 bedrooms and some land to maintain (mowing in the summer, plowing the short driveway in the winter). I'm looking forward to letting the dogs run around and not having to pick up dog poop anymore. The new landlord is very sweet. The house belonged to her parents, and she couldn't bring herself to sell it when they passed. She lives in Maine, and is worried sick over the fact that I'm going to be "all alone in the middle of nowhere for a year" while David is deployed. I told her that I'm a tough girl and she shouldn't worry about it.

After talking with the current tenants yesterday, I am starting to get a little worried that I'm taking on too much with this house. It's really better than the alternatives, which are living in an apartment, or cramming into a two bedroom house that is 30 minutes from campus. We have no lawn mower, and so I'll need to figure that out. I'm hoping to hire someone to do it for me, but if that doesn't work out, we'll have to buy a ride-able mower (too much land to just use a push mower) and either sell it before we move home, or haul it back to California with us.

I have time to work out the snow plow and the baby sitter. The tenants said it snows a lot in Canton and that the winters are cold. This house seems like it is going to be expensive to heat as well, so I'll have to worry about either hauling in a lot of wood daily/weekly and keeping the wood burning stoves going, or paying an expensive oil bill (forced heat). I'm sure it will work itself out. Normally I wouldn't fret so much, but once David is gone, it'll be just Laney and I, and I worry that leaving her alone for 30 minutes while I schlep wood is not safe. We'll see how that works out.

David had to pack one of his small containers to go on the boat that will be taking most of their gear over to Afghanistan last night. It really hit me hard. It's too early to be thinking about the deployment! Then he says that his commander was reminding them that they only have 90 days left before the deployment! 90 days! That's nothing! He was trying to tell me that as a way of saying 'don't worry honey, that's a long time'- but in my mind it had the opposite effect. 90 days is going to fly by, and I am really dreading him leaving.

The only good news is that this is his last deployment. After this, he is home for good and we are out of the Army and no one has to dictate to us where to be and when. I'm really looking forward to that.

We move in 3 weeks. I'm not looking forward to it, mostly because I can't really help much. We meet with the landlord next weekend to sign the lease. I'm hoping I can talk her into letting me take down some of the really dated wall paper upstairs and paint some neutral colors. All 4 rooms upstairs have really bad wallpaper, and I'm dreading living in them for 2 years. Plus with wallpaper you can't really hang pictures. Who likes wall paper anyway? It's so awful.

I am looking forward to setting up Laney's room and finally getting to put away all of the wonderful baby gifts I've received so far. So far our theme for her room is jungle with greens and yellows, but unfortunately the wall paper in her room is pink floral (I know, right?), so we'll have to see if we can work with that.

The good news about this house is that the 4 bedrooms allows us to have a guestroom, so anyone can visit anytime they want!

Nursing school starts in a month. I'm not really worried about it just yet. I'm hoping it's going to be an easy semester with only 8 units. Plus, I'm looking forward to getting back to the gym once the baby is born and losing some of this baby fat (campus has a gym I can use). I know, I know...

I have most of what I need for school. Orientation is next week. That should be fun. Be old fat pregnant lady wandering around a campus full of 18 year old's, wondering what in the heck I'm doing there... Still need to pay tuition (military financial assistance program will pay for first $6k, and I'm hoping that goes through without a hitch) and buy books.

David and I will go to Syracuse in two weeks to buy the rest of the baby gear (car seat) and also buy his motorcycle. Scary!

Things, they are a changin'...