AAFES 5K

Last Friday the base had a 5k run. I really wanted to run it even though I hadn't worked out at all since I had Norah. So the week of I ran a couple times and then had Abe run the actual race with me. He was nice enough to push the jogger :) I am hoping to run another half marathon in October and figure I need to start getting in shape. Plus I still need to work off the baby fat that is not coming off as easily as it did with Adeline. Abe and I have NEVER ran together before, so I really enjoyed it. He doesn't like to run with me because I like to run SLOW, like a 10 minute mile. Abe on the other hand would like to run a 7 minute mile, but not run over 3 miles. He said it wasn't that bad though since he had to run with the stroller. We had to run up a pretty big hill as well, and I imagine I would have died if I was pushing that sucker. The entire time Adeline kept telling us she wanted to get out and run as well to get some exercise. We promised her that at the end of the race she could get out and run across the finish line; and that's just what she did. She loved it because everyone thought she was so cute and was cheering for her. I was just crossing my fingers she would not trip and fall. She had her shoes on the wrong feet and was running with her head to the side looking at everyone who was cheering. It is not uncommon for her to do a head plant. Lucky for her that didn't happen. There were probably only about 30 people total that ran the race. I got lucky because apparently there was only one other girl in my division and she just "happened" to finish after me. So I won my division even though we were so slow! I got a $25 gift card, a gift bag and a gift certificate for any kind of new balance shoes I want. Awesome. They even put together a prize for Adeline and called her up to get her award. She got a really cute stuffed animal. It was really fun! Good job Adeline for running your first 5K!








These two other videos have nothing to do with the 5k, but I thought they were cute....

"I want your job"

.... is what Abe said yesterday. We had just gotten back from a cute little family owned farm a couple miles away where they have a petting zoo for little kids. They give you a little bucket of produce to feed the animals. Adeline LOVED it! Of course she even threw a little tantrum when we had to go. I bought some yummy bread at their little store and some fresh eggs. I guess my job isn't that bad, right? Poor Abe. I wouldn't trade my job for his! However if he had my job for a week, he would be begging to go back to work!





Little miss Sassy pants Adeline has been pretty funny lately (as well as being quite a handful). Every time I go to take video of her or take a picture, she pulls the funniest faces. In this video you will see!





We are still trying to figure out what to do with Adeline for nap and bedtime. She FOR SURE still needs a nap. We went several days with out one last week and it was a disaster. But even if she is exausted, she still will lay on her floor and cry in her room for us to go to bed with her every night. This goes on until about 10pm every night and we just have to ignore her until she finally falls asleep. I know she is still adjusting from the move and not having a binky at night, but I don't know what to do! I just started a sticker chart and she gets a sticker every time she goes to bed with out crying. We will see how it goes. So far, not so good. The biggest problem when she is crying is that she continually wakes Norah up!


Norah is still as sweet as can be. She is such a happy baby and so smiley! It seems as though she hardly cries and is pretty easy. She has now learned to roll from front to back, and back to front. We are so proud of her!

Military Life

Before I met Abe, what I knew about the military was pretty ignorant... I didn't know much. Military life has been a lot better than I had imagined. Abe has had great jobs and for the past year and a half they paid him to get his Masters Degree. Can't beat that. We have felt very fortunate during these hard economic times to know that his job is not going anywhere. This is the first time that we have actually lived "on base". I have always been a little anti living on base, but it's not that bad. When people here ask where we live and we say "on base", I think they imagine we live in a tent or something. We don't. Here are some of the things I've come to learn about base-

-Every day at 7:30am Reveille (pronounced revily) plays on the loud speakers. I never really hear it unless I am already awake.
-Every day at 5pm the National Anthem plays; this is called retreat. If you are in your car, you are expected to stop and wait until it has finished. If you are outside, you are to stop, face the music and put your hand on your heart. Adeline and I were playing at the park one day when it went off. There were lots of kids there without an adult. But without fail, all the kids stopped what they were doing and did what they were supposed to. It's actually pretty cool. Adeline knows what to do now. If you come and visit us she will teach you :)
-Every night at 9pm Taps plays
-It's nice living close to everything. Abe's work is .5 mile away from our house. The commisary (grocery store) is cheap and convenient. The gym is really nice, FREE and is just down the street. It also has a family room so I can work out and bring my kids. There is a bowling alley and a couple places to eat on base. There is also a library, dog park, thrift store, BX (like Shopko), a bank, gas station, swimming pool, movie theatre, elementary school, etc.
-We went to "How to train your dragon" at the movie theatre on Friday night on base. It was really good! It cost us $8.00 for all four of us to get in. Adeline and Norah were free. What a deal! Before the movie starts they play the National Anthem and everyone has to stand up and put their hand over their heart.
-If you live on base here, preschool is going to be completely free. Starting this year the military is going to fund it.
-It's nice living on base because it's easier to meet people. Everyone is in the same boat.
-This is not a perk from living on base, but we have learned that Chick-Fil-A here gives a 50% discount to military. We also learned that we can park at a Coast Guard Station downtown for free instead of paying $20.

I feel like I am more patriotic now than I used to be. Last week I was leaving base and as I left, and bunch of cop cars and cars past me to get on base. It looked like the president was coming to visit. I called Abe to see what was going on. It was a Fallen Soldier Procession. On my way back on base I was two cars away from getting back onto base when they shut down the gates for the Procession. We had to wait about 20 minutes for it to start. By then there were probably 100 cars behind me trying to get on base. Every single person got out of their vehicles to stand for the soldier as they drove off base. Civilians, contractors and military all walked down to the street from where they were working to stand for the soldier. I couldn't help but cry and be thankful. It was a neat experience.

Before living on base, it didn't seem as "real" that Abe was in the military... except that he wears his uniform every day. I'm pretty sure living on base will be a good experience.

Miss Norah at 4 Months

Norah had her 4 month appointment on Monday. She is thriving pretty well... as we all knew! They didn't write down her stats for me, so I hopefully I am remembering them correct.

Weight: 13.5 lbs, 72nd percentile
Height: 25.5 inches, 70nd percentile
Head: can't remember measurements, but 84th percentile

I love this little girl so much. She is mostly always happy and loves to smile. She is a very social baby. She is rolling very well from her tummy to her back, but not so much the other way. She is getting very close though. She is now taking long naps, which has been SO nice. Before she was only taking 15 minute cat naps. She still wakes up about 2 times a night to eat. She loves her big sister so much when she is not being tortured!

Spiritual little Adeline

I wanted to write down two little stories so I don't forget them.

Like I said in the previous post, Adeline wants us to tell her a story every single night. She will request a princess story, doggy story, pig story, camping story, etc. Two nights ago she requested a doggy story. Prior to telling her a story I let her know that if she didn't go to bed like a big girl, I would have to take her tea set away that she just got that day. She has been obsessed with it. But night time has been really hard lately and she will whine until about 10pm. So I had warned her of that earlier because I am at loss of how to get her to bed. Anyway, so I told her a story about a doggy named Charlie that was really excited one day and he was at home by himself. He jumped up on the door and opened it on accident. He ran outside into the neighborhood and ended up getting lost. After awhile of not finding his way home he decided to say a prayer to Heavenly Father to help him find his way home. After he prayed, he walked down the street and was able to find his way home.

After I finished telling her this story she said, " If you take my tea set away from me I will have to pray to Heavenly Father and he will help me find it mommy!"

*

Yesterday in the morning I was getting ready and Adeline and Norah were both laying on my bed. Adeline jumped down and got out a church picture book out of Abe's bag that Abe's mom gave us. She started showing Norah all the pictures in the book and was telling her the stories in the pictures. One of the pages she pointed to Jesus and said, " Look Norah, this is Jesus. And this is a girl and she is sick. Jesus is going to make her better."

She is the sweetest little thing.

Settling In

Beware, this is a massive post!

The last month has been absolutely crazy. It seemed like we had so much going on before our move. We were able to hang out with our friends and say goodbye, but I wish we could have spent more time them.





Abe graduated from AFIT (Air Force Institute of Technology) with his Masters. I’m pretty sure he was very relieved to be done with school. The last couple of months he was very busy with his classes and trying to get his Thesis done. Way to go Abe! I brought all my camera gear so I could get some good pictures of Abe. I recently got a 70-200 2.8 telephoto lens and was excited to use it. As soon as we got there, I realized I forgot my flash card and it was too late to go back and get it. Luckily I had my crappy point and shoot. Abe’s parents were able to be there which was neat. Their main purpose for visiting us was for Norah’s baby blessing and so that Abe’s dad could help us drive out to Boston. It was so much fun spending time with them and that they could be here for these major events. Abe’s good friend Rob also game out for Abe’s Graduation and Norah’s blessing. We are so blessed to have such supportive family and friends.







We were able to attend our neighborhood Easter egg hunt before we left. It was a lot more fun than last year. Adeline was practically running around grabbing eggs and was so excited. We also went to another Easter egg hunt that my friend hosted a couple days after our neighborhood one. It was pretty funny because every time Adeline would pick up an egg she would shake it before she put it in her basket. If she didn’t hear anything, she would put it back and move on to the next one. I had to assure her that they still had candy in them. At the other hunt there were some that only had a tattoo or a sticker… so I think she thought this Easter egg hunt was the same and wanted to make sure she got a lot of candy.






Most of my time before we left was spent packing and cleaning. After deep cleaning my entire house from top to bottom for 8 hours straight 2 days in a row, I had wished I hired a maid. It was really sad seeing our moving truck drive away and saying goodbye to our house. We were lucky enough to get really good renters and hopefully they will take care of the house.




On our drive out to Boston, we stopped at Niagara Falls. It was pretty interesting having Abe’s dad, me, Abe, Adeline, Norah and Chloe all in one hotel room. We probably should have got 2 rooms… maybe next time. We went to look at the falls at nighttime. I actually liked it better at night because of all the lights. It was freezing cold and windy, so we didn’t stay long. Adeline enjoyed seeing the waterfalls. It was funny because when we were driving there we told Adeline that we were going to see a Waterfall. She said, “No, I don’t want to”. A couple minutes later she said, “Okay… but I don’t want to go down it!”. What a silly girl.



When we got to our TLF (temporary housing) at Hanscom AFB in Boston it was about 10:30pm and we showed up to a tiny place. There was one bed, a little sitting area and a tiny kitchen. NOT ideal for a family of 4 plus a dog. Oh, and Abe’s dad that first night. Things were quite tight. We ended up staying there for 10 days because the housing office on base was being a little bit difficult. All four of us would take naps together in the same bed everyday. Adeline was such a good sport and ran around all the houses we looked at saying which room was going to be hers and what color we were going to paint her room. If it weren’t for her, I’m not sure if I would have been able to hold it together. The housing office finally offered us a house on base and we accepted it even though we really wanted a new house. They told us they had no idea when the new houses were going to be done. We were going to wait 30 days to see if one popped up, but it didn’t seem very promising. 2 days after we signed a 1 year contract the new houses opened up. To be honest I cried when I found that out because we are living in a tiny town home built in the 1950’s. However things happen for a reason and I am going to make the best of the place we are living in. The bonus is that we make a lot of money living here because it is so “cheap” (for Boston), so I shouldn’t complain. We have never experienced living on base before, so this is all new for us. There are going to be many benefits for living on base.

We are adjusting living in a new place. I am excited to get to know the area because there are so many things to do and see. Abe is back at work now and that has been weird since he was around so much. I can tell that Adeline has been affected by the move now. Ever since we have moved into our house, she hasn't been the happy, silly, obedient** girl she usually is. We are constantly on her to eat, go to bed (that has been a nightmare), listen, etc. She is still happy, but I can tell she is struggling. I need to give her some extra special attention or something.
If anyone wants to come and visit us, we would love to have visitors!







Just an update on the girls-



Adeline
*Loves stories. She makes us tell her stories every night before she goes to bed. I have found that I do not have a very good imagination anymore and can never think of anything to say. Mine are pretty lame. Adeline on the other hand tells pretty good stories.

*Still loves talking. She loves to talk to people when we are at the store and tell them about her baby sister, or her dog Chloe. She can be a pretty good icebreaker.

*Sings all the time. I am always amazed at her imagination because she makes up most of the songs that she sings and they are hilarious.

*Thinks she can go to the bathroom anywhere outside. Today she ran up to me at the park and asked me to help her because she was going to go poo poo in the grass. Uh, that is not okay Adeline.

*Calls the Easter Bunny the “Super Bunny” no matter how many times you correct her.

*Loves princesses and Dora

*A couple of months ago Adeline ran out of pull ups for night time so we decided to let her wear underwear at night. She has done great and hasn’t had one accident at night.

*For some reason she started calling us “mom” and “dad” all the time. Not a big fan. I feel like she is an adult now

*Two days ago we finally threw away her pacifier. I hate to admit that she still had it when she went to bed, but she loved it. She had two of them and one of them had a little hole and it stunk. I told her it was time to get rid of it and threw it away. She said, “I will get my other binki, it’s ok”. Well, we never found that pacifier so we officially got rid of them. I have been warning her the binki fairy may come and take away her binki’s to give them to the little babies that need them, so I told her that’s what happened to the other one.



Norah
*Is a little tank. She has the most darling chunky thighs. It’s quite a change since Adeline has always been a little waif.

*Loves her hands and is always sticking them in her mouth.

*Has gotten pretty good at grabbing things and putting them in her mouth.

*Smiles ALL the time.

*Laughs out loud.

*making lots of sounds and loves hearing her own voice.

*Loves when we sing to her or tickle her.

*Such a happy little baby. She is a little spoiled though and wants to be held or needs someone to pay attention or talk to her.

Sorry that this is a novel. Now that we finally have internet, I will try and be better about updating my blog.

Twilight Zone

Sorry for my lack of posting, but the last couple of weeks has been very crazy. We spent a lot of time hanging out with our friends, had a visit from Abe's parents, our friend Rob, Abe's Graduation, Norah's Blessing, packing, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.... and now we are on our way to Boston. It is a weird feeling being completely homeless. We passed our house off to another military family that will be renting from us. We have been very fortunate to get renters in right away and they seem like they are going to be a perfect fit. It was really sad saying goodbye to our house and our good friends. It has been an emotional week. Luckily we have been preparing Adeline for this for several months, so she seems excited about moving to Boston. She has been sleeping in a sleeping bag for 2 weeks has has been handling this extremely well. Now lets cross our fingers we can find a house in the next week! Pictures and more adventures to come once I can find all my camera cords and stuff!