It's a Girl!

On Wednesday I had another prenatal check-up and did a second ultrasound to find out if we're having a boy or girl. Early on in my pregnancy I couldn't decide which I would prefer, while Jeremy was quite certain he wanted another boy. As time went on I always thought of this baby as a boy and always referred to him as a he...

Well, much to my shock, he's a her. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was rather upset right at first. I actually started crying when I told Jeremy on the phone, and I even stopped at Burger King to get myself a milk shake on the way home. My mind was whirling with unpleasant images of pink, pink, and more pink...frilly, poofy pink at that. My blissful imaginations about our little Levi chasing after his big brother in bare feet and blue jeans were dashed to pieces...and to make matters worse, I ordered a strawberry milkshake, which is very, very pink.

But after a day or two I started coming around. I quickly enough realized that Anna Beth can chase after her big brother in bare feet and blue jeans, and most likely will, just as easily as a Levi Mark would. And, while friends and family may shower our little girl with an abundance of pink and frills, I don't have to buy pink and frills for her, so it should balance out just fine. I really do like pink after all, just so long as it's in moderation. So, when Hannah, Reuben, and I went out shopping on Friday, I checked the sale rack at Kohl's in the baby section and decided to get a little girl outfit that I really liked, just to celebrate.

Now I'm totally thrilled to be able to pray for little Anna Beth by name during my morning prayer time with Reuben each day. I think it just threw me for a big loop to have my expectations all mixed up like that. Thank goodness we had the opportunity to find out before Anna is born, or else I can only imagine what a mess I would be at her birth... (chuckle) I'm quite sure I'll be emotional enough without getting a surprise that big. By the way, Jeremy's excited about having a girl now too. ;)

Loving Spring

By the end of last week we had acquired a twin size bed and the perfect set of bookshelves. It was a bit nerve wracking going on the first furniture shopping trip of my married life without Jeremy, but at least Hannah was able and willing to go with me so it was actually a pretty fun day. We've now got the house all settled into this new arrangement, and it looks fantastic! (in my totally biased opinion of course)

Hannah started staying over Sunday night and she's already been an amazing blessing. She probably doesn't realize just how much she's helping just by being there, but having her there to talk to, hang out with, and generally just liven up our otherwise very quiet little lives around here is wonderful. This morning I had to get up early to go get lab work done before eating breakfast, and then go grocery shopping. Normally that would have added up to an very stressful morning that would have gotten me home around 1:00, so tired and frazzled I undoubtedly would have sunk right into a chair and just cried. But instead I had Hannah, so I took off to run my errands with the greatest of ease, returned to the house victoriously before noon, and happily tackled the rest of my day with more energy than I had started with.

Being the born and bred Texan that I am, most of the time I just tolerate Connecticut weather as best as I can, or try anyway. The past couple weeks have been a dramatic departure from the norm as Spring has burst upon us in all it's glory. It's been so gorgeous that it would almost be criminal not to go out and enjoy it, so we've gone to the park several times recently. It's a great place to walk, and Reuben really loves playing on the playground. Actually he's quite fearless, shooting down the slides head first before I'm in position to catch him, and trying to walk down the steps instead of crawling. I ran as fast as I could...and fortunately, he's a pretty tough little kid.

Reuben seems to be feeling better, but he's still a little grump so I can't quite tell if he isn't entirely better yet, or if he just got spoiled while he was sick. Fortunately, he still a very sweet, precious little boy for more of the day than he is a grump. We had dinner at Grandma's house tonight, along with Reuben's cousins and Aunt Shawna. Cousin Katie seemed to be having about the same kind of day as Reuben, and in the end both of them proved to be specially in need of some sleep.

Jeremy seems to be doing pretty well. He's finally come to the conclusion that his shin splints might get better if he got a new pair of running shoes, so hopefully his PT experience will improve over the next few weeks. Yesterday he got his first pair of glasses...and he looks so different with them. I like them, I really do, but it's kinda weirding me out that this guy that otherwise looks just like my husband is wearing glasses... Hopefully I can get used to them through pictures.

Here's some highlights from the nice long e-mail Jeremy sent me on Sunday:

"I just got back from "Mandatory Fun Day" and a nice park they have right here on the base. It was a good time, with bugers and dogs on the grill, volleyball, soccer, football, frisbee, go-carts, miniature golf, and batting cages. Unfortunatly someone thought it would be a good idea to bring their computer and speakers and put on some music, so if you were anywhere near the pavilion you had to deal with that retarded noise...

"Oh, guess what! I found out that the 400 days includes my thirty days leave at the end, so I'll actually be home by about this time next year! I know that that doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but hey, that's like taking a whole month off this deployment! I was pretty stoked to hear that myself."

You can see more of Jeremy's pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/mpminter08

Life Keeps Moving On...

This week has been so much better than last week. Most of it was spent organizing, sorting, and rearranging the apartment. It didn't take much before my lower back was about ready to go on strike, and there were times when I wondered if I had just popped a hernia, but working on the house was extremely refreshing on an emotional level. Thankfully for me, I have some amazing brothers and sisters-in-law who came over and helped me with all the heavy lifting. I felt a bit like a bum having them do pretty much everything while I stood there directing traffic, but I could still move at the end of the day, and my little home looks amazing now. :) All Jeremy's painting stuff is up in the attic now, and we traded bedrooms with Reuben to boot. I didn't realize just how much room we had before now - our apartment feels huge! (I'm just sorry I didn't take pictures before the move)

Reuben's new bedroom

Our New Bedroom

Reuben's been having a hard time sleeping through the night lately, and last night was one of the worst. He woke up so sad and miserable and wouldn't eat hardly a thing for breakfast. Not sure what was up, but knowing he wasn't feeling well, I gave him some baby motrin and he returned to his usual self again until the medicine wore off.

We spent the day at Grandma's house doing laundry, and while we were over there Grandma clued me in that Reuben has been acting exactly like his Daddy did as a baby every time he got an ear infection. It all makes sense now. Then I realized later that he's had a runny nose and has had unexplained "off days" more and more over the past 3-5 weeks, and about 5 weeks ago I started giving him a little bottle of cows milk with breakfast every morning. I knew we have a family history of milk intolerance, but for some reason I didn't stay alert to adverse affects. He was so miserable all day, and though he settled down and was reasonably content once we got home again, he was burning up when I put him in bed. This is the sickest he's been since he was born. I've seen my siblings like this countless times, I know it's just a simple childhood illness that otherwise perfectly healthy little boys always live through just fine...but it's still so scary and nerve wracking.

The brightest spot in his whole day today was playing on Grandpa's pool table. He's finally learned how to roll the balls instead of throwing them, and they even stay on the table most of the time now too. He was perfectly entertained up there for at least a half hour, I'm pretty sure it was longer than that.

Just Hanging In There

Two weeks have passed now since we saw Jeremy off with the rest of his unit, and the initial agony of saying goodbye has more or less passed. Now the dull ache of going through "the daily grind" without Jeremy has begun to set it. In keeping with countless admonitions from family and friends, and my own common sense, I've been careful each and every day to "take care of my self" by reaching out for fellowship or assistance when I need it, or just doing little things on my own to keep up my spirits.

Tuesday we went to the park, Wednesday I called Hannah (my sister-in-law) to come over for lunch, Thursday afternoon we spent at my in-laws doing laundry and enjoying dinner, and Friday night we went to the movie night at church. Every morning at breakfast I religiously took my vitamins, read the daily Proverbs, and prayed with Reuben, and I was careful to eat well all week. Still, I could feel myself going a little loopy with so many hours in the day so thoroughly filled with just me and my toddler, and so empty of Jeremy. Reuben has been a real sweetheart, but there were whole days where he was just grumpy and agitated for no apparent reason.



It all came to a head when Reuben woke up screaming at around 1:30a.m. Saturday morning, and I'd only just gone to bed at midnight. He never did go back to sleep until around 5:00a.m., and thus neither did I. He was awake again by 8:30 or so, and long before breakfast was over, I was very aware that I was about to snap. After a quick call to Grandma, Reuben was wisked away for the day so I could have a break, and after a nice shower I was off to a local park to try and recover some sense of sanity once again. I was so tired, physically and emotionally, so ready for Jeremy to not be gone anymore.

I had been trying to convince myself that Reuben really doesn't know what's going on, that he doesn't particularly notice that Daddy hasn't come home for too long, that he's too young to really miss his Daddy. I can't bear to think that he may actually be feeling any part of what I'm feeling...but I can't deny it anymore. He clings to all his uncles, desperately grabs for pictures of his Daddy, and lights up at the sound of his Daddy's voice on the phone. Yesterday night I figured out how to play our home videos on the TV. When Jeremy came on the screen saying "Hi Reuben, how are you little buddy?" Reuben broke into a huge smile, started laughing and talking back to the TV, and toddled over to the entertainment center where he proceeded to try and climb up the cabinet and into the TV so he could be where his Daddy was. He was so frustrated he couldn't get to him. I lost it, and quickly evacuated to the back of the house so he wouldn't see me in such distress.

Hannah had offered to stay with me while Jeremy's gone, but I was convinced it really wouldn't be necessary and I'd be much more productive without"having company" on a long term basis like that. After this week I've come to realize that in the absense of some grown up comraderie my ability to function will fast disapear and that's far more of a hindrance to productivity than "having company." So much so that all of a sudden having Hannah stay with me doesn't seem so much like "company" at all. Today I talked with her and my parents-in-law to let them know I'm taking her up on that offer, and I've experienced a new surge of hope making plans to re-arrange the appartment for a new "family member."

Raging pregnancy hormones seem to be my worst enemy at the moment. I honestly can't even imagine how I'm going to survive a year of this. Honestly, I can't imagine how I'm going to get through tomorrow. The key is to just live in God's grace for the moment. As soon as I try to bear the burden of the whole year ahead of me, it becomes too much. Way too much.

PFC Jeremy

Jeremy got to call yesterday around lunch time, and for once we had crystal clear cell phone reception, and Jeremy wasn't nearly so dog tired as he usually is for our evening phone call, so I got to hear a fair bit about how training is going so far.

First off, you should know that Jeremy is in the 3rd Platoon, which is by far, and without any doubt, the absolute best of the three platoons. They have the best leadership, the best soldiers, and they've been "cleaning up" on all their training exercises so far. There's a healthy bit of platoon rivalry among the guys of course, such that setting foot in the room of a squad from a different platoon will almost certainly get you tackled, taped and para cord bound and held hostage until your platoon comes to rescue you. They even have a secret platoon handshake and several very Army sounding nick names. "War Pigs" is the one that stands out most in my memory...highly flattering, I must say. Through my laughter I finally interjected, "Jeremy, it sounds for all the world like you're at boys camp!", and he readily agreed. Obviously morale is high, the men are having a good time and glad to be where they are.

Their most recent training exercises have included a lot of weapons training, a three mile ruck march with "full battle rattle" (ie: all the body armor they'll be wearing, full pack, weapon, etc.), some language classes, and of course, training classes specific to their mission of helping the Iraqi Police to become a self-sufficient entity.

Jeremy - dressed for a three mile ruck march

Jeremy's platoon - resting after their 5 mile march

Right now the unit is stationed in barracks at Fort Dix, NJ. These first few weeks they're getting a lot of paper work and administrative details tackled, issuing a ton of gear, and beginning the very long check list of training courses that have to be done before shipping out to Iraq. Right now they have wi-fi internet access right there in the barracks, and enough free time to be able to call home at least once a day, and do some shopping online and on the base to get those little items of gear specific to each soldier (ie: prescription safety glasses, insoles for your boots, a certain tactical knife or flashlight, etc.). Soon enough they'll be moving out to a tent city for more intense mobilization training. There they will be simulating life in Iraq every single day, with patrols, mock ambushes, sleeping in sleeping bags on cots with limited amenities, and so on.

Current Barracks

a Wedding in Virginia

We just returned from a quick trip to Virginia for a family wedding. Reuben and I rode down with some of Jeremy's siblings, Michael, Hannah, and Stephen. Seven months pregnant with a toddler in tow can be a little intimidating a times, but everyone around me, especially his aunts and uncles, are so wonderful about helping me with anything and everything, most especially that very cool little toddler of mine.


The wedding was really fun, and afterwards we were able to hook up with some cousins from the other side of Jeremy's family to go bowling and crash at Starbucks.

Being a native Texan and all, I never would have picked out Connecticut as a state I wanted to live in, and much of the time I'm terribly home sick for the good old Lone Star State. But, the man I married is pretty much amazing, and he has a really cool and wonderful family that I'm still blessed to have around even when he isn't.

In our prayer time together the morning before we left, Reuben and I asked that he would be a good boy on the trip to Virginia. Boy did God answer that prayer - I still can't get over just how good he really was, not just good either, but totally fun to have along. God is pretty wonderful that way...I am so very blessed.

The Countdown Begins

The send off ceremony for Jeremy's Army Reserve Unit was on Saturday at 11:00a.m. After the ceremony there was a hamburger and hotdog reception for an hour or so until the guys loaded up on the bus. That final farewell was difficult, but not so bad as I had feared it would be. I cried off and on the whole way home, then spent the rest of the day just resting and trying not to think too much. I was amazed at just how exhausted I was from all the tears, not to mention the days and weeks of dreading that inevitable farewell. But it had come, and gone, and in a way Jeremy and I both were totally relieved that good bye was behind us. Now the countdown has begun and we can begin looking forward to his homecoming.


Now that Jeremy's gone, and I have the truck all to myself, my life has become insanely busy. There were so many things I put off while he was here so we could just enjoy our time together, and now they've all caught up with me. I've run more errands in the past two days than I normally do in the course of a month. Keeping up with our toddler and taking care of our little one still on the way adds to the burden, and yet they are my greatest source of comfort and motivation right now. Reuben's sweet smile and ready laugh makes it all but impossible not to keep smiling myself.