The Veteran I Will Never Forget

Some people have expressed their displeasure that I chose to post a Happy Birthday to my husband and not a Facebook post thanking the Veterans. Well, I have my reasons. 1. I actually DO things to thank veterans, not just post on Facebook, and I choose not to post those on Facebook. 2. My husband is a very kind, selfless man who deserves to have a day that is all his own for his family to celebrate.

However, I still had planned on posting a little something about the veterans, but I never got the chance before things were said since I had to help get my husband ready for work and take care of my child. I have a bit of time, so now I can do that.

I feel the best way I could publicly thank the veterans is by sharing a story of one in particular I had the great privilege of spending some time with. I don't remember how old I was, what grade I was in, or his name, but it was one of the MANY times I went and sang at the Veterans Hospital in my hometown. I had talked to many men and women who believed I was their daughter, or sister and I took on that role to give them a little bit of happiness in that moment. It killed me to leave not knowing if the real daughter or sister would come and visit. But one man in particular really captured my attention. I usually was able to go around and talk to many of the men and women in there, but this man and I spent the whole time talking to each other. He held my hand with tears in his eyes for a long time, not saying anything, just looking at me. When he did speak he told me I had a good heart and asked me to keep using it for good and to bring joy to others with my gift. He had asked me how long I had been singing, why I loved it, things like that. After just chatting about life and him asking me about my goals in life, etc. my choir teacher told us it was time to get going. I gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek and I told him that I would see him again soon, as we were going to sing there again in about a month. He held my hand again and he said that he knew he wasn't going to make it until then. I gave him another hug and told him I would look for him anyways and then thanked him for our chat and his sacrifice. This amazing man told me that he would do it all over again if it meant I would be able to achieve all of the things I wanted to. He asked me to promise him that I would try my hardest to achieve everything I wanted to do with my life and told me that would be the biggest thing I could do to thank him, and the other veterans, I had no problem promising him that. The next time I came I did look for him, he had passed on.... It was hard to sing that day...

Since then I've stumbled and made mistakes, but I've kept that sweet man and my promise to him in my heart. The biggest of those goals I had I've already started to accomplish, marrying a good man and raising a family with him. The rest, I continue to work on every day and I learn new things I want to accomplish every day. I didn't realize when I made that promise that it wouldn't just end once I had accomplished the things I told him I wanted to, but it would continue for the rest of my time on this earth because there would always be new goals to make and keep.

That is how I choose celebrate and appreciate what our servicemen do for us everyday, by keeping a promise I made to an old veteran in the last days of his life. I hope that he looks down on me and is proud of the woman I've become and sees that I'm trying my hardest everyday to keep my promise to him.

I sucked at blogging before...

But holy moly with a baby it's even harder! Last time I posted it was right after Gus was born. He is now 6 months old (I know right? Talk about time flying!) and super energetic! He sits up and rocks on his hands and knees and can take steps, with mom and dad holding him up of course. His favorite toy is his Jumperoo. He goes nuts in that thing! Jumping, rocking, playing with stuff and he loves to talk to the monkey and rhino toys on there. He also LOVES to spin all the things that spin on there. He now says Mom and Dad (hooray!) and LOVES to eat sweet potato baby food. He will grab anything he can get his hands on and put it right in his mouth. He loves to speak what I like to call "Anglish", some of his most common/funny phrases are "ooh gee wah", "Ow doo gay" and "Bwah". He now weighs 20lbs and is about 27 in long and wearing 12 month clothes, he's my little linebacker.

Motherhood has been quite the ride. Sleepless nights, frustration, puke, poop, pee. You name it. But what's even better are the hugs, laughs, smiles and kisses. The satisfaction of seeing your little one figure something new out is priceless. When he discovered his toes it was the cutest thing. He gets so excited about all the new things and that just makes me so happy. I love to watch the little wheels in his head turn. I watch him spin things and move things on his jumperoo and you can just see in his eyes that he is concentrating really hard and learning. It's so incredible. He watches what Colin and I do and tries to mimic it. That's how he figured out how to eat food. I fed him while Colin was eating and he figured it out! He watches daddy on the computer and now wants to press all the buttons. Everywhere we go, someone stops and talks to Gus and tells me how adorable he is. He of course milks that for all it's worth and totally turns on the charm. 6 months and already a little flirt! Thankfully he flirts with Mommy the most! Sometimes he's so cute, it becomes a cuteness overload and I just have to kiss the kid 50 million times on the cheek!

Colin and I wouldn't trade this for the world. Gus has brought a joy into our home and our lives that we could have never imagined. Our house may not always be spotless, we may listen to kid shows and noisy toys all day. Our house may have been taken over by all sorts of baby products, but it's all part of the fun. We love our little boy more than anything in this universe, besides each other of course. Gus is always on our mind. We sit in bed at night looking at pictures, videos and telling stories about all the silly things he does. Most of all, our home is filled with smiles and laughter. We couldn't ask for anything better!

Angus is Here! My birth story!

It's been, oh... 14 weeks since I last posted! The last little bit of my pregnancy was rough. I had a bunch of contractions and pain and such. Just getting back at me for my easier than normal first/second trimesters! At 34 weeks I went to the hospital because I was seeing stars and such. Wanted to make sure I wasn't developing pre-eclampsia. Ended up staying there for 5 hours on New Years Eve with contractions and had to have them stopped. Pretty crazy! After that I continued to have contractions, but not as regularly. I was put on light bed rest. 36 weeks comes around and I get off bed rest and was told to walk walk walk and start getting those contractions (you just can't win haha!) Feb. 3rd I went to the hospital because my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart for a few hours, then they got more intense and closer together. After being monitored for 3 hours with NO progress I was sent home. My blood pressure had been much higher than it had been my whole pregnancy starting at 37 weeks as well. I was contracting regularly then as well. Still no progress! After a long while of these regular contractions without any progress and the fact that my blood pressures had been elevated, at 38 weeks we scheduled an induction for Feb. 12th 2013. I was to go to the hospital at 7:30 to start Cytotec.

So fast forward to that day. I went to see my doctor at 2:30 that day. She checked my progress, none made of course, and then discussed what was going to be happening at my induction that night. She is the sweetest doctor. She told me I would do wonderful and that she was so proud of me and couldn't wait to meet the little man! About an hour after my check, I started getting more painful contractions. My parents and sister arrived at about 4pm and we went and got dinner at Memphis Championship BBQ. My contractions continued to be regular but increased in intensity. Finally 7pm rolls around and we headed to the hospital! When we got there I signed in and met my first nurse, Mindee. She was so professional and sweet! We did the normal. Got changed, answered a bunch of questions, basically signed away my life. Then I got checked again (no progress, go figure). Then they gave me the Cytotec. About an hour later with a lot of pain I decided to take some pain meds, boy they made me giggly and then made me fall asleep. When I woke up, I was in loads of pain! It was awful... So the nurse came in and checked me again! Finally I had progress, and enough to get an epidural, you can bet your butts I was ALL over that! After what seemed about an eternity (only about 15 min really) the anesthesiologist came in and gave it to me. Seriously, the most amazing thing ever. I fell asleep for about 2 hours and when I woke up I was feeling a lot of pressure, at first I thought it was from the catheter. Because of that they checked me again. I went from 4cm to 8cm dilated in 2 HOURS! Crazy! So I called my parents and told them to get there fast. They got there about 20 min. later. They all came in and checked on me and I was at 9cm at this point. My dad and sister went out to the lobby and my mom and Colin stayed with me. I started feeling like I needed to push right after they walked out the door, so I was checked again and lo and behold I was at 10cm!!! So they called the doctor to come and asked me to try not to push. Well, easier said than done... They decided to let me try, but I was too strong and if I had kept up at that rate the baby would have gotten there before the doctor so I had to keep from pushing again. That was seriously the HARDEST part. Working against what my body is naturally supposed to do is far from easy and it exhausted me. So by the time the doctor got there, I wasn't half as strong as I had been. But after an hour of pushing, I was holding my little boy in my arms! He is so absolutely perfect!