Stars and Giggles

Stars! I finally viewed the shining stars. It was beautiful and it was only 7:30ish in the morning!

Ailish and Honey Bear are becoming inseparable. Ailish spotted Honey Bear from her floor mat in her room and used my hands to get herself up. She then progressed making her way one wobbly step at a time to Honey Bear who had thrown her ball into Ailish's room. Meanwhile, Honey Bear is making her way into Ailish's room to retrieve her ball (thinking the baby is going to still her ball) and Ailish is all smiles and dimples. I tell Honey Bear to stay and she lays down which causes Ailish to giggle and drool. This is repeated several times until Ailish makes it close enough to pet Honey Bear who then gives Ailish kisses on the hands and feet. Somewhere in all the excitement Ailish spits up on herself and the floor. I didn't have the heart to take her away to clean her off or the floor because of how happy she was to be closer to Honey Bear. Thankfully, Honey Bear cleaned up Ailish's spit up. It was a fair trade considering I cleaned up Honey Bear's vomit earlier that morning. If I only had a second set of hands to video tape all this minus the vomit and spit up of course. It was definitely, priceless and a memory to cherish.

In other news, my PC has crashed and we are down to one PC. So, hopefully, this PC will last until we are able to save up for a reliable desk top. If not, back to old school mailing letters and actually calling instead of texts. I must confess I do miss the excitement of receiving a letter in the mail and a friendly voice on the other end of the phone.

No place like home.

There is no place like home. There is no place like home. There is no place like home. Boo! It didn’t work. I guess this is home! Not quite how I thought it would be, but I suppose that is just life. Life is full of the unexpected and it is never boring. Things like friends take time. Feeling settled is overrated and wanting things to be perfect is absurd. Imperfections are part of the beauty of a rare jewel. The roughness of a seashell is smoothed and perfected over time in turbulent surf. The same goes for us. We at times need to be taken from our comfort zones in order to grow. How we grow is up to us. We can wait for something to change which could take forever or we can face what is in front of us by moving forward, one day at a time, one lesson at a time, and one prayer at a time. Prayer is essential and is always answered in His time.

The other day, Will was asked to reenact his job by the Weather channel. He said it was hard to reenact with a straight face. I can only imagine. I can’t wait to see if they insert it in one of the episodes. The Weather channel is doing a short series on the Coast Guard and will be viewing November 9^th. So, stay tuned, you may see Will on your television.

We had lots of fun making gluten free cinnamon sugar cookies that evening while Ailish took a nap. Christmas is a couple months away, but we couldn’t resist playing Christmas music as we devoured the cookies we had made. There is nothing like being together to make anywhere feel like home.

Ailish is sure to be a coffee connoisseur or at least be a lover of coffee. She has had her eye on my thermos and has made strides to get to it. Mommy enabling her of course, but none the less she is fascinated by it. Precious!

Bear!

We were on our way to the beach talking about how cool it would be to see a bear when we spotted one on the shore of a creek. Surprisingly, the bear was not interested in all the seagulls that were surrounding him, but on the tasty meal of salmon in front of him. It gave great photo opportunities without feeling endangered. Ailish was safely fastened in her car seat with doors closed. Just in case any other bear was lurking. The bear was just across the creek. We agreed if the bear got into the creek we would take that clue and run back into the jeep. It definitely gave us an adrenaline rush and woke us from our lethargic state.

After driving along the road further we stopped at a park by the water and spotted sea lions. They were like cute puppies! The sea lions were so curious, yet so sneaky. We then made it to the beach. The waves were glassy and perfect condition for us to begin surfing. However, we lacked the equipment to do so. The walk on the beach was relaxing and most enjoyable for Ailish. The scenery was beautiful with mountains, rock cliff, pebbles, drift wood, and black sand. We are looking forward to making a day of it.

Ailish is growing right before our very eyes! This little girl is now staying awake for 2 hours and then sleeping for 1-2 hours at a time. She is so much fun! She loves to be read to. She will sit in our lap and look at the pictures as we read. This girl wants to stand and walk too. She will hold on to things so she can stand and when we hold her up she walks. This girly is strong. Will was just holding her hands and she used her strength to push herself up from sitting to standing!

About to boil

Yes, there are times when I about loose it and yesterday was one of them. Will came home and informed me that he had to get another flu shot. What?! He had just gotten one right before we had left for Alaska. Apparently, they keep records but don’t check them. He could have fought it, but that could have put him on the “list” which one does not want to be on. The truth is I was about to boil over and punch someone out. Err! After taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, I let self-control rule.

Another time I was about to boil over is a couple weeks ago when we found out there was a lien on our account for property tax in a county I have not lived in for over 2 years. So, they did all the research to take money from our account, but not enough research to see that my vehicle had been registered in Alabama and that I did not owe them money. Genius. Yes, and now I am the lucky one who has to do all the leg work to prove my innocents and have our money returned to our account. Not to mention we never received a notice. They said they sent it (it was an old AL address we had). Um, wouldn’t the AL address been a first clue that something was fishy?

Ok, enough frustrating thoughts for this post. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” -Matthew 6:34

Now for our dear little Ailish to stop fighting sleep and rest.

A Monday on a Friday

This past Tuesday we moved into our apartment for the next three years. We are sad that there is no yard for Honey Bear, but we are so happy for all the storage. The kitchen is the biggest we have ever had and it even has a pantry! All our stuff was accounted for and only one thing was broken.

Wednesday Will put together Ailish’s dresser and crib. It was the sweetest scene to watch. I was so caught up in every free moment to put stuff away that I forgot to take pictures! Will also put together her highchair, by the end of the day her nursery was finished (minus painting and pictures hung). It feels like home now. The rest of the day we ran errands for a few items and ended up with a flat screen TV. I laugh at this because I thought the bigger TV would be better and Will didn’t want to ask for the bigger one. So we purchased the smaller one, left the store and discovered what each other was thinking. Which brings me to Thursday; Will returned the TV and purchased the bigger one (this was after three trips into town).

Ailish slept in her crib like a pro, now only if she would take her naps in it. The morning of her first night in the crib we walked in on her holding her toes. It was so cute! All smiles too!

Today, Friday, has not gone so smoothly. I am questioning if it is really Monday? The morning started off great. Will left me coffee. I had my much needed quiet time. I had a lovely chat with my brother’ wife and right in the middle of feeding Ailish there were knocks on the door. The fire inspectors were here. Seriously, I thought they were coming at eleven! O, well. So, I left to go pick up Honey Bear from the kennel, but the fire inspector stopped me. So, I had to re-park, unload Ailish, and wait until they were done. I was then off to pick up Honey Bear, but I made a wrong turn and got delayed. Finally, with dog in tow heading toward town I smell pooh. This was not baby pooh either. Honey Bear starts whining and I kept reminding her to stay all the while we are stuck behind a very slow truck. We made it without any other accident to the dog groomer place, dropped her off, cleaned pooh off her bed, and headed to a couple stores looking for a new dog bed. I am about to pull out of one store when this lady with her full cart walks behind our vehicle and parks her cart right behind our vehicle! She then begins to unload her bags into her car. What?! When she was done I, thankfully, noticed the six foot drop off before exiting the parking lot (I thought there was an exit that way). So I turned around just in time to see the lady who parked her cart behind my vehicle just smiling as she got in front of me at the correct exit. Needless to say, it was time to grab my favorite latte’ at Harborside, the” Bob Marley,” Conveniently, located next store to the dog grooming place. By the time I parked to pick up the dog, Ailish is crying because she is hungry, and Honey Bear has to pooh again. We finally leave the dog grooming place after feeding Ailish and placing her disposable diaper changing pad over the dog’s bed (Honey Bear was digging into her bed because of the plastic bag over the pooh and a towel on top). On the way back to the kennels to pay them; Will calls from work to ask, “How was your day?”

Monday

Today is the day that the movers deliver our stuff or so they say. The question is will it all be there? Will it all be in one piece? Good thing we have pictures, receipts, and a list. Now the other question is will we be able to stay there? Why? One may ask. Well, after residing in our empty apartment for an hour I started coughing and my eyes became dry and hurting. I am grateful Will went over there and cracked the windows. We are hoping that will take care of it. The good thing is Ailish didn't seem to be bothered it.

Yesterday, we missed the 4 point something earthquake. Crazy? Like who misses that? Maybe we were driving at the time? Who knows.

I can speak for Ailish on this. She will be glad to be in our new place. The little kids staying here love her and don't understand what leave her alone means. I have to be a hawk! However, she will miss the nice older lady at the front desk. She just smiled at her this morning.