Shield My Head in the Day of Battle

It's been an eventful 2 weeks since Josh left, for both of us. I am reminded that while I am now enjoying the warm, breezy air and the palm trees and the pool and time with my boo boo and family, that things are not so idyllic or easy for my husband. I found this passage in Psalms tonight and it sure helps to know it still applies to him today. 

Psalm 140

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers;
protect me from the violent,
² who devise evil plans in their hearts
and stir up war every day.
³ They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
the poison of vipers is on their lips.^[b]

⁴ Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from the violent,
who devise ways to trip my feet.
⁵ The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps for me along my path.

⁶ I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”
Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy.
⁷ Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer,
you shield my head in the day of battle.
⁸ Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord;
do not let their plans succeed.

⁹ Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
¹⁰ May burning coals fall on them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise.
¹¹ May slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down the violent.

¹² I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
¹³ Surely the righteous will praise your name,
and the upright will live in your presence.

We Made It

I'm in California. It sure feels like we climbed a mountain, really really fast, in one day, to get here.

Right now I'm sitting with a cup of coffee in my parents' family room as the sun starts to peek out from the morning clouds. Waverly is down for her morning nap and my mom's gone to pick up Cobie from boarding.

Yesterday was the most epically crazy day of all time, quite possibly.

We find out at 9:30 that our flight at 2 has been cancelled. So you'd think if you're going to be rescheduled it's going to be on a later flight, right? Well, no. We got rebooked on a 1:15, which meant we had to leave the house by 11 at the latest, and ohmyword, did we have to work really really really fast to finish cleaning and packing - and we left my poor dad with hurried instructions as to what needed to go in storage and what was supposed to go with him...it was insanity. I was also trying to coordinate with the landlords and their contact here as to when they'd pick up the keys to lock up.

Thank the Lord, everything worked out - my dad got everything taken care of at the house and is just hitting New Mexico. Mark was also rebooked to Michigan but arrived safely. Our flights to California were as good as can be expected when traveling with an almost 8 month old who doesn't want to sit down and is confined to the same teeny tiny area for 4+ hours straight. I am so glad I had my mom along to help entertain her and hold her when I needed a free hand. We got to Temecula around 7 (9pm Tennessee time) and thankfully Waverly went right to sleep in her new room (with her sheet from her crib back home which is helping her sleep I think ;).

SO. How do you thank someone for all that? Lots of margaritas? ;) I shall have to do something for my amazing family...they worked so hard and it sure wasn't much of a vacation, but I hope once my dad gets here we can all start to enjoy this awesome opportunity. Mom and baby and I are off to a good start - Panera for lunch is on the agenda today, then maybe some time poolside and a nap. It feels kinda funny to finally be here - after all this planning and talking. My car will be here and it's not just for a couple of days...I can go to the Farmer's Market every weekend and go to wine country and the beach...all good things to keep us occupied while Joshua is away.

I sure miss him though...he is busy over there in Afghanistan and the rest of his team is almost all there, so I'm glad for that. Waverly sure sounds like she's saying Daddy now - not just dada, lol - and it sure makes me wish he was here to do all the fun things we're going to be able to do too. BUT, we will look forward to doing that when he gets home; hopefully before Christmas.

Many things to be thankful for...many things to keep praying about.

Help Will Soon Arrive

It will be a week tomorrow since Josh left, and I am very thankful things have gone as well as they have since he left. He is still traveling to his final destination, so it's been interesting to hear about the different places he's been, what the Afghan people are like, and see some of the amazing mountain scenery in his pictures. I had no idea Afghanistan was so close to Nepal/India. I'm not so much for the geography ;)

Josh's photos while at Bagram AFB

We've had good communication thus far, mostly through Facebook chat. He's been able to access internet every place he's been, thankfully, but I hate that soldiers have to pay for internet. I know it's a "luxury" service that's provided for the troops if they can get it, but I really wish it was something they didn't have to shell out for, as it's the best/easiest way for them to communciate with their families. In my opinion. ;) So I'll just be thankful it is available to them.

I know he's anxious to get where he's going and settle into his own space. I am not so much excited about that as then it's game time and we'll be in this for real. I just pray the Afghan Army soldiers he works with are decent people and they get along fairly well and can respect each other, and that they're safe when they go out on patrols and so forth.

Praise the Lord, Waverly and I have been kept very busy with all our packing and errands we've had to do before our move. We've also gotten to spend some time with new friends. I'm very thankful for connections that are made through the Army - especially when they're also LIBERTY connections! Those are extra special. So Waverly got to meet a little girl who is only a week younger than her, and it was so fun to watch them play together and for me to make a wonderful new friend too. We have now got to get W a ball pit ;)

Waverly and her new friend Onnolee

Praise the Lord x 2, because my parents come tomorrow, and Mark comes Wednesday. Waverly and Tokie are very excited for this. Although we've been kept busy, I know I couldn't do this by myself for much longer. Waverly has been awesome, but it sure is hard to be the sole caregiver for an extended period of time, especially with no family around. Just to have an extra set of hands (or two or three) will be so wonderful! And maybe I can even schedule that hair appointment....

Helping get the guest bed ready

Ready for her own bed

Sidenote: Tennessee seems to disagree with both Waverly and I. I'm on Zyrtec - NEVER before had any issues with allergies and I got these horrible colds/sinus infections month after month once we moved here. Waverly has also been put on it and has some eczema; I feel lately she has just been scratching and itching at everything on her head - rubbing her eyes and her chin, scratching her head, her ears, her face...her little eyelids (above and below) are all red and I just want to get her out of here and see if the drier, less pollen-y California air helps her.

So that's our first week down...please keep Josh in your prayers. :)

See You Soon

Waverly and I said "see you soon" to Joshua yesterday.

But before that dreaded moment, we started the day off with Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It is so funny now to watch Waverly HAVE to get her hands on EVERYTHING within her reach. Menus, straw wrappers, syrup bottles, orange slices. She kept us entertained and happy while we had a good last big meal out. We headed home for her nap, and Josh and I were able to watch some our favorite shows we'd DVR'd from the night before. I had to wake her up to feed her before we left, and Josh started getting ready while I got baby ready. I didn't know how hard it was for him before we even left the house - she was watching him put on his boots with apparently a "what are you doing" look on her face. So sad!

We had to run a few errands before we arrived at the company area; Josh needed some patches for his uniform - thankfully that kept us occupied as we had to try about 4 different stores to find the ones he needed! We grabbed Arby's drive thru and ate in the parking lot before going in to see what was going on. Thankfully, this time around, there wasn't a huge hoopla. We aren't huge fans of hundreds of families all crying in a gym. Makes it 100 times worse in my opinion. We were able to take a few pictures and then say goodbye at the car, relatively privately. It was so hard. It was hard for Josh to say goodbye to Waverly especially. They are such buddies...but I am thankful she is too young to realize or remember any of this. I got my hugs and kisses, but when I thought I had my last one, I just broke down and had to get one last last one. We didn't prolong it - why would you want to do that - and Waverly and I headed back home.

I expected to be a wreck all day. I believe all the prayers from family and friends helped this not to be the case. I wasn't looking forward to crying my eyes out while trying to take care of the baby...fortunately she took a great nap once we got home and I had about 2 hours to myself to curl up in bed and try to get my mind in the place it needs to be. I definitely had some teary moments, especially when we said our prayer for Daddy at bedtime. We pray angels surround him and keep him safe and bring him home to us soon.

Today we got to Skype and chat on Facebook, and it was so great to see Josh and for him to see the baby. She even clapped her hands for him for the first time (on her own ;). Praying we get much more of those opportunities and that the rest of his travels go well. I've made my to-do list for the next week, and it is full of packing, errands, purging stuff we don't need, and hopefully some time with friends before my parents and Mark arrive and we head out to California. I'm so thankful I have that to look forward to, otherwise I'd really be dreading staying in Clarksville while many of my friends here are traveling with their kids. We should be back in the area hopefully before or after Christmas, depending on how long Josh's deployment is.

I'm so thankful for everyone's support - the kind words and prayers have been such an encouragement. I hope the rest of the deployment goes quickly and smoothly and that Josh's experience is rather dull. ;) We can only hope and pray!

times they are a changin...

Well, it's about that time again. Josh leaves in a little over 2 weeks for Afghanistan. This will be his third deployment, the first to that region. It'll definitely be a different experience for him - he's been areas of Baghdad for the first two deployments so this will be a bit more remote. It will also be a different experience for me - I had work to keep me busy previously, but now I have a munchkin! We've decided Waverly and I are going to move out to California to live with my parents for the majority of the deployment. It will give us a chance to spend some quality time with family as well as save some moolah....oh, and did I mention get out of our lease and AWAY from our very annoying neighbors? Even though I know us moving out there means Josh has left, I am really excited about the chance to spend a good chunk of time in Temecula and with my family. So, we are taking the good with the bad.

I'm going to think about the positives instead of dwelling on the fact that our little family will be separated for 6-9 months (so thankful it's not scheduled to be longer). Here's some of the things I can't wait to do once we get out to Cali:

~Saturday mornings at the Farmer's Market, Starbucks in hand.
~Enjoying my parents' pool and seeing Waverly become a little water bug
~Being housekeeper for my mom and letting her enjoy her weekends
~Using my family as guinea pigs for all my new Pinterest recipe experiments
~Focusing on my fitness again...there's a nice YMCA in Temecula
~Enjoying all the fun things to do in the area (SD Zoo, Sea World, Disney, snow in the mountains,   shopping with Grammie....;)
~Having a few extra hands around just in case I start to pull out my hair or come down with a mommy-duty-threatening illness
~Spending more than just 3-4 days at a time with my family


There's probably more but dinner's almost ready and Waverly needs her sweet potatoes.

Temecula

I LOVE going to visit my parents in California. They relocated to Temecula (see map below) almost two years ago from Michigan, and I believe my last trip out was my 4th since they've moved. The weather, the scenery, what the city and California in general have to offer makes for VERY fun vacations. Temecula is great because it's away from the insanity of LA, but close enough to it and other attractions that it makes for easy day trips. I can't wait to explore more of the area as time goes by!

 These are a few of my favorite things about visiting Temecula...

Winter Blues

As Joshua and I drove up to Atlanta for my birthday hoopla last weekend, Joshua made a "good and bad" observation about me ...that I get restless with things after a few months and am always wanting to move on to something new and different. How true. The good part about this characteristic? It fits perfectly with the Army life. I always look forward to moving to a new place, meeting new people and seeing new things, which is good, since we move every year or 3 for the past 5, and have another coming up this summer. The bad? I have a hard time being consistent with gym or workout rountines and it is especially annoying with jobs. It is interesting for the first few months, then the monotony reeeeeaaaally gets to me and I have a hard time staying motivated. I like my current job for the most part, and the money helps. I've never really thought about WHY I get like this with work and things I'll do for a few months, but thanks to my dear husband who knows me so well, his observation has helped me at least recognize why I get that way.

So, what's the point of making new year's resolutions? I never keep them. Not all of them, at least, more than a few months. And considering that I'm in my gym rut, thanks in part to the bitterly cold weather that's swept through the past few weeks, and my almost-overwhelming workload, I'm in a bit of a slump all around. However, once it does warm up past the point of freezing, I would like to get back to running in the park after work and doing yoga because I want to feel in great shape for our trip to New York City/NJ in March. I'm counting on the fact that I'll snap out of it shortly...after all, I have to look my best in my cute new BCBG dress for a night out on the town with my hubby in NYC! ;)