My heart is breaking

It's breaking for Haiti. For the people there who are hurting and hungry and homeless. For the children who were left parent-less. For the adoptive parents who haven't been able to bring their babies home to the States. For my husband who is serving his country by going over there for an unspecified amount of time. My heart is breaking for all these reasons.

Ryan left for Haiti on Thursday, after about 10 days of being told "we're leaving tomorrow" and then having it change over and over again. Even though I would much rather have him here, it was nice to finally get it over with. The waiting really sucked. So now I'm lonely. However, at times like this I'm so very proud to be an Army wife. But I really can't wait for him to be home because I miss him like crazy. Plus, Jax looks like he's going to be crawling soon and it makes me sad that Ryan will probably miss it.

I have been following the story of a little Haitian boy named Ronel. He was in the final stages of being adopted when the earthquake hit. When the US finally decided to push the adoptions that were in the final stages through, he thought he was going home. As in home to the US. He and about 25 other kids got ready to go. Then he got left behind. They needed one more paper for him, so he wasn't allowed to go. His (adoptive) daddy flew to Haiti and has been sleeping at the Embassy in an effort to get Ronel home. Things were going okay until UNICEF stepped in. They seem to believe that it is better for children to be in an orphanage in their country of origin than in a loving, nurturing home in a different country. So now it's a fight to bring Ronel home. There are two main blogs that are following his story. One HERE (which is his mama's blog) and one HERE. Read through the posts. Pray for them. Ronel's heart is breaking and so are the hearts of his (adoptive) parents who are desperately trying to get him home.

My heart is breaking, but I just can't imagine being in these other people's shoes. My husband will be coming home in the next few weeks/months and my baby is peacefully sleeping in the other room. I am blessed.

Community College

I'm excited to be going to school again, but I feel a bit odd because I'm attending a local community college. I'm only taking online classes, so it's not like I'm physically going there. But after attending 2 other community colleges and 2 other universities, it just feels odd to be going back to school in this way. Being married to the Army has made it so insanely difficult to complete my degree. I have tons of credits, both general education and elementary education, but none of them match up because they are from so many different places. I finally decided that I needed to get something completed, even if that just means getting my associate's for now.

Now don't think for a minute that it was an easy decision. Going on numbers alone, I have enough credits for a bachelor's degree, but at this point it would take about 2 more years to get them to all match up and complete that degree. PLUS, it means I would have to do student teaching and that's not something I want to do at this point because I don't want to put Jax is day care. So, that being said, I'm attending Fayetteville Technical Community College and working on my associate's degree in general education. Luckily, I only have about 16-18 credits to take, which I'm splitting up over two semesters. So hopefully by next spring I will have my degree. Once that's complete, my bachelor's will be on hold until further notice. It's just too hard figuring things out at this point. I'm looking forward to actually completing something. It's been weighing on my mind and it'll be so nice to have a degree in my hand... even if it is just from a community college!

Weekly Totals 1/17

I know it's been a little while since I've done this. I didn't do any shopping while we were on vacation, I just worked on collecting coupons.... especially because I had a boatload of coupons that expired 12/31. We are still recovering from Christmas/traveling expenses so we don't have much extra money this week, but I did make 2 trips to CVS for some good savings.

Trip #1- Spent $7 OOP and saved $25, with 2 ECB leftover (78% savings)

Trip #2- Spent $19 OOP and saved $11, with 10 ECB leftover (37% savings)

Total - Spent $27 and saved $36 (58% savings)

I know that second deal doesn't sound great, but it was worth it to me to get the $10 ECB to use for next time. That will be a great start to get some free stuff by rolling ECB's. The second trip was a deal on Pepsi sodas (spend $20, get $10ECB). We don't drink much soda, but I have 2 different parties coming up so I knew that I would be able to use it up. Plus, if you minus the ECB from the total, I really only spent $9 and saved $21... based on that, I got 6 12-packs for only $1.50/pack! It's a pretty good deal if I do say so myself. And I can't wait to spend those $10 ECB next week and get some free stuff. I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Oh, precious sleep... how I've missed thee

Success!!! Jax finally slept all the way through the night last night. It took 5 days, but he is officially used to being in his crib again. And not only did he sleep through the night, but he SLEPT through the night. He didn't make one peep. Which all you mommies out there know can be a bit unnerving when you're not expecting it. But once I checked on him and heard his sweet breath, I was so happy to realize that he did it! It also meant that I got a full night's sleep for the first time in a long time. Praise Jesus!

I can't believe my baby is so grown up already. I never posted 6 month updates, and now he's already well into 7 months. So here's what else is new with my little man...

• He weighs 19lbs(ish)
• He wears 6-9 month clothes
• He is great at sitting up on his own
• He has zero interest in crawling
• He loves food and prefers something off our plates to his own pureed food
• He loves Gerber puffs
• He is good at standing with support
• He loves bouncing around in his exersaucer
• He sleeps stretched out on his back and doesn't move all night
• He is doing well in the church nursery
• He loves to give hugs and kisses
• He is still a snuggle bug (as he has been since day 1)
• He rocks my world :)

Back to life, Back to reality

I'm sitting here listening to Jax cry and it's breaking my heart. We finally got back to Fayetteville yesterday after all kinds of flight drama. And now, I am having to deal with a baby who hasn't slept in his own crib in two weeks. And who also slept with us most of the nights we were in Clovis. (Don't judge me!). He had so much trouble sleeping and because we were sharing a room, we couldn't sleep if he was crying so he ended up in our bed. All that to say, he's not a happy camper being back in his own crib. I was really hoping that he would feel warm and cozy in such a familiar place, but I think he got so spoiled while we were there that it doesn't matter that he's hone now. I hate listening to him cry but I know that he has to figure out how to sleep by himself again. I just don't feel comfortable having him scream for a really long time. UGH! I don't really know what to do. Ryan is keeping me strong and letting me cry into his shoulder while I listen to Jax cry in his room. Sometimes being a parent really sucks.

I wanna let ya'll know about our dramatic time flying home, but I have no energy to write anything else for now. I'll try to update tomorrow. Have a great night ya'll!!

Fun giveaway!

But it's not mine...

I keep tabs on a blog that another Army wife/mommy writes. She is the one who referred us to our A-mazing doula when I had Jax! She's doing a giveaway of a Sony Reader (similar to the Amazon Kindle). It is open to all active-duty military members. Spouses can enter for their husbands! Go HERE to check it out.

Home for the Holidays

It's Monday, January 4th and we are supposed to be on our way back to North Carolina but the silly Fresno fog has stopped us in our tracks. I received a phone call from US Airways last night at 11pm saying our flight out of Fresno had been cancelled. I called them back and our only option to get out of Fresno and into Fayetteville was to leave tomorrow instead of today. I can't say that I'm too disappointed though! These last two weeks have been so awesome. Being around our families and seeing our friends... it's been great! Ryan has finally decided that he definitely wants to get out of the Army when his time is up and move back here. I know that might change, but for now I'm looking forward to that! We've even been looking at some houses here and thinking about where we might want to live. I can't wait for the day that we get to be around our families again!

Here's some of my favorite pictures from these past 2 weeks...

Happy anniversary to us!

Me with Jax and Mary with Ben!

Nana and Jax

Happy New Year everyone!!!