Fun at the Park: Day 15

I am so sorry I have not updated the blog this week. We have had a few extra things going on this week that are out of the ordinary which caused me to get a little side tracked. First, Karis and Thia started out the week not sleeping very well at all. We have had a few mornings this week that we have had to sleep a little later just to get the right number of hours in our sleep schedule.

Second, my dad went into the hospital last Thursday because his appendix was close to rupturing. The doctors removed the appendix, but he has not been able to get well. He started having fluid build up in his abdomen and then developed pneumonia at the end of this week. We have not gone to visit, but I have been on the phone with my mom and sister several times a day for updates.

Third, our schedule has not stopped just because a few other things were added in. So, we have been a little busy. We are loving this weather. I have been able to take the girls to the park several times this week. Both girls have enjoyed sliding and swinging. Mom has enjoyed that the sliding and swinging wears them both out. Oh, I wish the weather would stay like this for a LONG time. I know we will soon get to the really hot NOLA weather, but I sure am going to enjoy the cool breezes and beautiful sunshine while we have it.

Here are some pics of our fun at the park:

First Weekend: Day 11

We made it through the first weekend of Page's deployment. Saturday was probably the hardest day I have had since Page deployed. He is normally here on Saturdays so we missed him more so than on the days he is normally at work. We have a very scheduled week which actually goes by pretty quickly. The weekends are usually family times. We didn't have anything scheduled this weekend (except watching the Saints game, of course), so the days went by a little slower.

The other hard part for me was that I use to look forward to the weekends because I had help with the girls. I was not the only parent responsible for the girls on the weekends. I had a little more free time to do some things for me. This weekend I found myself getting frustrated with the girls quicker than I normally do. I realized this weekend that I am going to have to be more proactive about our weekends. I will probably begin planning one or two fun activities for us on Saturdays to get us through the weekends a little easier.

We really enjoyed watching the Saints beat the Cardinals on Saturday.

We are also glad they are playing the Vikings for the championship rather than Dallas. Karis watched most of the game with me and a friend who dropped to visit for a little bit. Every time a commercial would come on she would turn to me and say, "Mom, I want to watch more football!" I am so glad she is not use to commercials. She had no idea what they were. I realized how little "real" t.v. we actually watch.

Today (Monday) we are washing clothes and planning to go to the seminary library to see our friend Gabrielle (Lolli) Walker. Gabrielle's husband is also a chaplain in the National Guard. He is still a chaplain candidate until he completes his training this summer. The Walkers are one of the couples working with us in the church plant in mid-city. Please keep this couple in your prayers as Thomas looks for a job in mid-city. They just found out a few weeks ago that they are expecting their first baby. We are very excited for them.

Thanks so much for your continued prayer support. I can really tell that I am being prayed for. God is so gracious to me and my family.

Hair Day: Day 8

This morning for breakfast the girls had yogurt and cheerios. Karis was very concerned that EVERYONE get breakfast, SO, her stuffed dog got a bowl of cheerios and water as well.

Thia thoroughly enjoyed her water this morning. She is such a happy baby!

Every other week or so, Karis has Hair Day. I give her a bath in my bathtub in the morning and we wash and condition her hair. Every other wash she gets a conditioning rinse and gets to wear a cool shower cap while playing for a while with her bath toys. Today was not as in depth a process. We took down her hair (which takes a while when it is in small squares and twists like it was today) and then we wash and condition it really well. Even though this picture does not look like it, Karis really enjoys washing her hair.

After we finish with that step, we move to the living room and turn on a Mickey Mouse or Pooh and Tigger while brushing out her hair. Today we took a break to eat some lunch before we started that step.

Karis likes to have her hair in twists and braids, but she also likes to not have it in a number of what she calls "sqwiggies" (a.k.a. rubber bands) every once in a while. So, today I was happy to just put her hair in pompoms rather than spending the many hours it takes to divide and twist her hair. We will go back to that style next Hair Day.

Here is the end product. I don't know if you can see it really well, but she has 5 poms on her head. Those of you that know Karis well will be able to tell that she is tired. She has her thumb in her mouth and she is twisting her hair. This is a sure fire way to tell that she is ready for a nap! (that or feeling a little shy...you just have to read context clues) :-)

Hope you enjoy the pics of Hair Day and learning more about our hair process.

Keeping Busy: Day 7

Wednesdays and Thursdays are probably our busiest days of the week. Our routine is to go to the commissary (or grocery store on a military base) every Wednesday morning. Most of the employees in the commissary know our faces if not our names by now. The girls are a big hit. It is not anything for them to come home with DumDums or other treats from our "Friends" at the store. Wednesday afternoons are when I do my counseling sessions. I have a sweet teenager named Ashley who comes and watches the girls for me during that time. Karis comment about Ashley was, "Mommy, Mommy....my babysitter has the same name as you!" She also said she had a good time.

I sing on the praise team at our church (Harbor Commumity a.k.a Lakeview - Sojourn) on Sundays. We have practice on Wednesday nights. So I come home from counseling to put the girls to bed. Our music minister's wife, Chelsi, comes to sit at the house with the girls while I go to practice. Our church community has really stepped up the challenge of helping me out and I am so grateful to them as well as to the Lord for supplying my needs.

Thursdays are also pretty busy for us. I have a Bible study I attend at Redeemer Presbyterian every Thursday morning. I am so blessed with this community of ladies who pray for me and love on me and my kids as though I belonged to their church community. They challenge me to grow spiritually and I am grateful for their fellowship.

After Bible study we come back to the seminary for Mrs. Lee's Red Beans and Rice. Karis loves them and I enjoy not having to cook a big meal on Thursday nights. We are usually still very full from lunch so a large dinner is not necessary.

Tonight we had the Student Life Fair at the Hardin Student Center. Karis loved it because she was having chocolate, king cake, and cookies shoved in her face. What kid wouldn't like it? I like it because they have churches and restaurants from the neighborhood who bring food. I am talking really good food cooked by native New Orleanians (Gumbo, Jambalaya, Po-Boys, and Corn Bisque). It was so good! I am posting a picture of Karis's face after eating one of the many cookies people handed her without me looking. As I type she is upstairs keeping Thia awake because the sugar has not gotten out of her system.

I am also posting a few pics of Thia who has started drinking whole milk out of a bottle. I am trying to wean her off the bottle so I am beginning of replacing the formula with milk. She takes water out of a sippy cup without a problem, but she has problems with the milk. Maybe we can transition her in a few days.

Karis has been watching Sesame Street every few days and is really taken with Super Grover. She has decided that she is Super Karis and put the kapalana headband around her neck as a cape and runs around the house saying "Super Karis!" Here is a picture of her right before she took off again.

Projects: Day 5

So today we packed Ginger and Charlotte up and told them goodbye. Actually, Thia and I told them goodbye. Karis, who does not like goodbyes, refused to look at them and I think my have grunted bye as we walked out the door. I have a sweet friend who has volunteered to keep the girls for a few hours a week and today is that day. I left the girls at the house with her and Gin, Char, and I set out to the airport. As usual we were running a tad bit late, but I have not heard from her, so I am assuming they got on the plane okay and are headed back home. We so enjoyed having them here. They helped us ignore our missing Page/Daddy for a little while. I think it is now beginning to set in for us as I am beginning to feel the loneliness of single parenting and Karis is continually saying that she will "show Daddy my picture when he comes home" or "play tea party with Daddy tomorrow."

In order to give myself something constructive to do, I have decided to do some small projects around the house while Page is gone. These projects are things I have wanted to do to "finish" the house, but I just have not had time to do them. I decided that while Page is gone, it would be a good time to complete the projects. While I was out I went by Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked up a new shower rod...you know, the one that curves out away from the shower so that you have more room in the shower. I also picked up new shower curtain rings because the ones we have are rusting pretty badly. These new rings are horseshoe shaped and have a hook on either end which separate out the liner from the curtain.

Anyway, I got my drill and other tools I needed out. I laid everything out on our bed. I placed Thia in the pack-n-play in our room and Karis in her bed to take a nap. I began by reading the directions which Page always laughs at me for doing. He would rather just figure it out on his own. (Such a guy thing to do!!) Within 20 minutes I had my new shower curtain rod hung and the shower curtain and liner on the new rod. I am very excited. I think it might be a little crooked, but it is definitely not coming down (like our other shower curtain rod continually would do). For some reason the old rod would wait until I was directly under it and fall right smack dab on the top of my head. It drove me crazy. Not any more. I put the abusive rod in time out (aka the closet).

I did not take a pic of the before, but here is what the new rod looks like after......

Please continue to keep the girls in your prayers. Both of them have had colds since before Christmas. Thia's is a little worse than Karis' but it I can tell that both of them are not feeling as well as they could. We so appreciate each of your prayers!!

Fun with Friends: Day 4

We have been so blessed to have my dear friend of 15 years, Ginger (GiGi - to the girls), here to visit this weekend. She and her baby girl, Charlotte, flew down from Philly on Saturday and will be here until tomorrow.

We have had a wonderful time hanging out, talking, and playing. The girls have gotten along so well. Karis has been a big sister to Charlotte as well. She tries to protect both Thia and Charlotte from having their toys stolen by the other baby. She hugs on both girls and tries to soothe them when they get fussy.

Both Thia and Charlotte have runny noses, so Ginger stayed home with the little babies yesterday while Karis and I went to church. We had a wonderful time worshipping the Lord with our community of believers. James, our pastor, spoke on the difference between common grace and a greater grace that we often miss. It was a great reminder that God wants so much more for my life (as well as everyone else) than I could possibly imagine. I was so appreciative of the message.

Karis and I came home and everyone ate lunch and headed to bed for afternoon naps. Charlotte took a wonderful nap. My girls, however, decided that they did not want to take naps. After fighting with them for about an hour and a half, I gave up. Both of the girls were exhausted for the rest of the afternoon as was their mother. We all ate an early dinner and then loaded up the girls in the van for a quick run through the Cafe du Monde drive through. Ginger and I enjoyed coffee and beignets while 2 out of the 3 girls slept in the back of the van.

We got home and put the girls to bed. Gin and stayed up way too late talking, watching Friends, and eating popcorn. It was a great night.

Today Gin is going to help me hang some pictures in the girls room. We are also going to get VooDoo rolls from NO Food and Spirits and later tonight we are going to get double chocolate bread pudding from RedFish Grill. I couldn't let her leave New Orleans without at least eating a little bit of good food.

Reality of Page being gone has begun to set in for both myself and the girls. Both the girls continue to call for Page everyone morning. He normally would look on them first thing in the morning. They are missing that special time with their Daddy. Mom is missing Daddy putting the girls to bed at night and having that few minutes to myself. All of us are going to have to adjust to a new normal during this year. We are so appreciative of all the prayers being lifted up for us.

Page's Deployment: Day 1

I have been planning for this day for over a year. We have been making lists of all the jobs we need to complete, activities we want to do, and things we need to get before Page leaves. We had most of those things completed before Christmas. Since the week after Christmas we have been spending as much time together as a family and basically waiting on this day to get here.

I told Page that this waiting was different than anything I have experienced before. Part of me did not want this day to get here. Another part of me wanted the day over with so that I could start the countdown to his return. Now that the day is here I am a bit relieved in a way. The dreaded day has not been a hard as I thought it would be. I have allowed myself to grieve for the past few weeks, so today was not filled with a bunch of pint up emotions. I am sad. I am sad because my best friend is not longer right here with me on a day in day out basis. I am sad because my girls will miss their Daddy. I am sad when Karis tries to explain to her friends that her Daddy will be gone for "many, many days". Nothing can really take away the sadness, but the sadness is not overwhelming. I have a confidence that God is in control and that He is going to take care of me in new ways.

We have tried to keep busy today. A friend of mine (Rebecca Smith) and I took our girls to the Monkey Room which is an indoor room filled with a bunch of things to climb on a number of slides to come down on. Karis and Rebecca's daughter, Kaylee, had a blast. They climbed up the three story apparatus and either slid down, rolled down, or climbed back down usually squealing with glee. Thia is still a bit too little for this room, but she enjoyed watching the other kids while eating graham crackers.

Tonight I am going to dinner with Rebecca and her husband, Phil. We are going to eat Mexican food at the best Mexican restaurant in town. After the girls are in bed, I may watch a movie and then head to bed myself. I know that the nights will be worse than the days. My plan is to create a routine as quickly as possible and stick to it.

I am very excited that my college roommate, Ginger, will be coming into town tomorrow. She will be here through the beginning of next week. She and her darling baby girl, Charlotte, will be a great distraction for both myself and my girls.

I am very aware of the many prayers being lifted up for me and my family. I am very grateful for them. God has already answered a number of our prayers. I am excited to see how he continues to creatively meet our needs.