Mommy & Easton time

So, right now Harley and Lee went grocery shopping so Easton and I have a little time to spend together along which we have actually been doing all week since Lee has been at VBS. I can't believe how big he is getting so fast. I know I should have been prepared for it since I know how fast Lee grew but it happens too fast. He is all over the place now, I leave the room for a minute and come back and he is clear across the room. He is a roller!! I think he will be crawling very soon. He is very motivated. I feel bad for him because the whole house is tile, we have area rugs but I can't keep him from rolling off of them. I know when he starts to crawl his little knees will be all red from it. His tooth is coming in really good now, it has finally broken through the skin all the way and we can see it pretty well. When Lee got his first tooth he ended up getting three in a row right after that. Lee didn't seem to have as much of a hard time as Easton is so I hope after this first time it gets easier for him. I feel so bad for him, I know it has to hurt. He is jibber jabbering all the time now and I am trying so hard to get him to say mama. Lee started talking at 8 months old and hasn't stopped since and his first word was mama. Lee is loving VBS, when we take him he walks in there like he owns the place. I go early every day to pick him up so I can watch and see what they are learning. At the very end they sing a few songs and dance. He didn't see me sitting in there today and he was just singing, clapping, and dancing all over the place. It was so cute. He has some moves!! I think he will be upset when Saturday comes around and we don't take him, he is thinking that he is in real school right now. School doesn't start here until the beginning of September. In a couple of weeks we are going to start putting him in the Child Development Center so he will have some interaction and some learning. He would much rather be with other kids than be at home with me all day. Let me just brag about my husband a little bit now. I took a good nap today and while I napped, he swept and mopped the whole house, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen!! What a great guy!! And now he is doing the grocery shopping, I couldn't ask for a better husband. We have our van now and I drove it today and it felt kind of weird. I am so used to driving our explorer and the van feels a lot bigger, so hopefully I will get used to it. Lee loves it!! He likes to sit in the very back for some reason. Well that is pretty much my Wednesday for now, when Harley and Lee get home we are going to grill some hamburgers on the grill and then who knows what. Amanda, thanks so much for your comment, it meant a lot!!

A better day

Today was definintely a better day than yesterday. Lee was on pretty good behavior and Easton is feeling pretty well and happy as usual. Easton is always the early bird in this family and is up anywhere between 4 and 5. No matter what time he goes to bed something makes him get up at the crack of dawn. Lee is getting better at sleeping later. He used to get up as soon as he saw any crack of sunlight coming through his bedroom window. I actually had to wake him up today to get him to get dressed for VBS. I was a brave mom today and took him to his group and left right away, i was so proud I didn't linger around to see how he was doing. When I went to pick him up they were all sining and dancing and having a good ole' time. He didn't want to come home. I had to bribe him with McDonald's chicken nuggets. We also had a lunch date with the president of the Oak Leaf Wives Club today at her house, which by the way is absolutely beautiful. She is wonderful and welcoming and outgoing. I am hoping to get to know her more. She has a 2 year old little boy and two older boys around 16 and 18, but I am just guessing. There was also another lady there who had just gotten to Guam also and she has two children. the girl is 9 and the boy is 6. They were great kids. I have never seen such behaved kids ever. Do I need to take a parenting class or something. I am very glad that I made myself go today because I did have a very good timel. I started to come out of my hermit shell today a little bit, so I guess little by little is better than doing nothing. I have decided to start a reward chart with Lee and we will make it together and when he does his chores and obeys he will get stickers and if he gets so many stickers by the end of the month he will be able to draw a prize. We will think together of some things he really wants and put those ideas in a jar and that is how we will decide what he will get for being a good boy. I hope this works and something he can look forward to. Have any of you out there done this and does it work? I just know that I need to be consistant with it so that he deosn't lose interest in it. I will try to take some more pictures soon and post them. Hope everyone is doing great!

Feeling very emotional lately

We have now been in Guam for over a month and Harley has made a ton of progress and I feel that I have made none, zip, nothing!! What is up with that? I am so happy I have my children to keep me going. I really haven't made friends out here and that hurts badly. I love to have friends and I would do anything for great friends. Is is too much to ask for a great friend to love to be around all of the time no matter what is happening or how naughty the kids are? I never thought I would be so desperate for a friend. I wasn't this sad tonight until I started looking at all of the pictures that we had taken when we were in Illinois over the summer of all of our family and friends. I miss you all sooooo much!! You have no idea! I am literally in tears here writing this now. I feel that I am missing out on so much that is going on at home and yet here I am on a tropical island seeing things that others never get a chance to see or do. Am I the one being selfish? I have such great family and friends back in IL and in VA and I would do anything to see any of them right now. Also, this staying at home mom thing is wearing me out!! The house is always a wreck and right now it is Lee making the mess but soon Easton will be the one making messes too. I want to be happy!! I am usually a happy person, love to get to know people and get out and do things. I feel like I am being a hermit, I need some motivation, HELP!! Any suggestions. I took Lee to VBS today and the place was loaded with kids, at least 200 kids. You would think that since no one really recognizes me that maybe someone would introduce themself to me, nope, didn't happen. Broke my heart so I was pretty sad all day. What is wrong with me? I am shy at first and I am out of my comfort zone there and was hoping to be welcomed but I will keep trying every day this week. Please keep us in your prayers, we need it badly. I never thought this would be such a drastic change but it is bigger than I imagined. Thanks to all of you who think or pray for us on a daily basis, it means so much to us. For the love of God, I need some friends please!!!!!!

Tooth number one

We have the start of a tooth ladies and gentlemen!! After an agonizing week of Easton being sick with a runny nose, fever, and endless slobbering there is a tooth on the bottom. Of course it is not all the way in but it can definitely be seen and felt. He is finally feeling much better. I unfortunately do not have a whole lot to say as the days seem to be the same one after another so far. Vacation Bible School starts this Monday from 9-12 every day and I signed Lee up. I am very excited for him and I think that he will enjoy himself. He is also signed up for Pre-school, Woo Whoo!! I am hoping that with him making some friends that will help me make some friends also. I am in desperate need of some adult interaction especially during the days when Harley is at work. Here are some pictures of Lee and Easton in the bathtub together. For about the last week or so every time I am running bath water for Easton Lee strips off his clothes and jumps in so I have just been putting them in there together and it helps get things done a little bit faster. They both enjoy taking a bath together. Easton loves being with Lee wherever it may be. I swear that sometimes Easton would just about break his neck to turn and see what his big brother is doing. I think this is about the shortest blog I have written so hopefully next time I will hopefully have something exciting happen between now and then!

Evening on the beach

This lizard has adopted out house for his house. We have seen him several times in the kitchen and now he is even brave enough to climb the walls. I am doing very welll with him, I didn't even scream when I saw him I just walked outside and told harley about it and he wanted to catch him with a cup and put him outside. I told him no that he can stay in here beacuse he must be comforable in out house. I just don't want to be infested with them.

We were invited to a cookout on the beach and we decided to go ahead a go. It was shuch a beautiful night. The weather was only 85 degrees and there was actually a breeze and you know what the best part was?? We didn't sweat at all. I got a couple of pictures and I also have a picture to post of the lizard that is living on our kitcehn wall right now, I think he as adopted us to take care of him. He is kind of cute though. We have named him Louie the lizard.

Making progress

I have to say that I had a much better day today. Harley was home all day and Lee was so happy to spend the whole day with him. I went to the school that Lee would be going to and got all of the paper work to sign him up. Harley and Lee went to the NEX and got all of his school supplies so he will be all ready to go. Another thing they had to do was go and get Lee his shots so that he could go to school. I guess it wasn't fun at all. He had to get 2 shots in each leg and also a PPD done. Harley had to literally get on the table with him to hold him down. Poor little guy, that's a lot of shots. Easton is next, he needs to get his 6 months shots, at least he isn't as hard to hold down as Lee. I am so excited for Lee to go to school, he will make friends and the thing he is most excited about is that he gets to learn how to use scissors! Easton is doing a little better today, it is 6:30 in the evening and he is still up. The last 3 nights he had been going to bed at 5, he hasn't felt good at all. But going to bed at 5 means morning starts at 3:45 and he is ready to go. Now to change to subject to food, we had BLT's tonight and they were soooo good. I love those sandwiches and Harley made them which made them taste even better. I have always loved them. Today was much much better than yesterday and Harley is off work on Tuesday too so hopefully it will be another calm day.

Hardest Job Ever

I have decided that being a stay at home mommy is the hardest job ever!!! I will be the first, well probably not the first to admit that it is extremely hard! I love having two boys, don't get me wrong, I love them with all of my heart. I would have to say that working full time in Virginia seemed a lot easier than staying at home all of the time and I don't know why. How could that be? I seemed to get more done when I worked and got home in the evening. First of all, Lee has absolutely no structure in his life right now until preschool starts, which I am going to go by there tomorrow and sign him up. He was so used to going to school in Va and playing with kids his age, he loved it, and I loved it! I loved his teacher, Ms. Theresa, she was the best. She loves all of the kids that go there like they are her own. She was always so proud of Lee just like we were. He seemed to be much calmer then, now he just likes to be naughty all the time. We went to church today and a friend picked the boys and I up because Harley had to work. The church is very close to our house but I am just not ready to walk yet because I am still not used to the heat. I thought Virginia was hot, this is much hotter. I sweat soooo bad, my face, arms, and even my legs sweat! Lee was pretty good at church and actually enjoyed Children's Church, and Easton was very good in the nursery so I got to enjoy the whole church service without someone coming to get me because one of them was crying or wanting to leave. After church we went to the NEX for lunch and then to walk around. Lee was awful, Heather if you are reading this I am so so sorry! He couldn't sit still to eat his lunch, he was all over Heather, and making loud noises, that's just the beginning. After we ate we went to walk around which didn't last long at all. Easton hasn't been feeling good, he has had a pretty bad cold and he was crying because he was tired and wanted out of his carseat. Lee was running through the store like a madman!! Heather's little boy is 15 months and Lee wants to play with him, but doesn't realize how much younger he is. He kept on grabbing Logan and at one poing I thought he was going to pull this poor child out of the cart. He wouldn't listen to me at all, so I told him we were going outside, of course he didn't want to go so he starts yelling and crying. I then had two crying kids carrying one and pulling the other by the hand trying to get out of the store as fast as I could. I wanted to burst into tears! After we got home, I sent him to his room for a while, that is when he knows he is in trouble and he came out about 7 minutes later and said he wanted to be a good boy. He did calm down some and has been pretty good for the rest of the day. I know this isn't a very positive blog but I just needed to vent. I know that I am extremely blessed to even be able to stay at home with my kids and I shouldn't be complaining about it but I guess I just need a lot of training and getting used to doing it. I have already done four loads of laundry, cooked, and cleaned, dishes, gave baths, and did I mention I still have about 4 more loads of laundry before I even get close to catching up? Laundry is the worse, I would rather clean the bathroom every day than do laundry. I need to get back to doing one load a day and that helps keep caught up pretty well. I don't want Harley to have to worry about doing these things on his days off. He is tired enough, even though it is only a 6 bed ICU, he is still tired. I can understand that not being as busy as you are used to can make you even more tired. He should be able to enjoy his time off with his family. So Harley, I know you will be reading this, I promise to keep up with the laundry! It is my downfall. I am pretty much OCD about the rest of the house staying clean, well we both are, but we are getting better at having some messes around and it doesn't bother us as much anymore. So, I think that I am done with my ranting and raving about being a full time mom but once I get the hang of it I am sure that I will love everything about it. I am still trying to get used to Guam and everything about it. Oh yeah, the puppy is a definite NO!! I drove 45 minutes yesterday to go see some puppies which were very cute but did not fall in love with one of them. No dog for a long time, like Aunt Lois said we can just put the dog thing on hold. Until Easton is potty trained and both boys can take much responsibility for a pet, they can wait! So sorry for the negative and down blog but I just needed to vent a little and I am feeling quite a bit better now. Off to do some more laundry!

To get a dog or not to get a dog.

Here are a few pictures that were recently taken. I forgot to post them first so everything I have written about it underneath the pictures. As you can see I posted pictures of all of us and the one picture of me that has been taken is awful but I put it on here anyways. Harley hardly ever grabs the camera to take pictures and this is the one he gets of me, LOVELY! LOl!

For a while now Lee has been asking for a dog. We did have three pets in VA and worked very hard to get rid of them so we wouldn't have to bring them to Guam and put them in Quarantine for 30 days which I think is pretty cruel. They all got a loving home and we had decided not to get a new pet for a long time. If it were up to me I would have a cat that is potty trained like a dog. I can't stand litter boxes! We actually were pretty close to having our cat in VA trained like a dog. He loved to be outside and would pretty much go to the door during the day when he had to go to the bathroom, so the only time he used the litter box was during the night. He was a fiesty little thing, he was always after someones feet or batting at their fingers or chasing you. He was one of the most playful cats I have ever had. We had a cocker spaniel for over five years and I got her when she was only 6 weeks old. She was Harley's wedding present and more than I could ask for. After I had bought her I wanted to give her back, I will never forget her whining at night for the first few weeks, it was horrible. I told myself I would never ever get a puppy again. They are so hard to potty train, she took FOREVER!! She would always get so excited to have company she would pee when anyone came to the door, but I guess it is the type of breed also. We went to the GAIN, Gaum Animals In Need tonight and they keep all of their dogs outside in fenced in areas and it was just sad. I felt so sorry for all of them. Their were all kinds of dogs, from cute little puppies to mangee old dogs. I should have never went, I will probably have nightmares tonight because that is all I will be able to think about. I think if we do get a dog it will have to be potty trained. If we do get a puppy the good thing is that the whole house is tile so any accidents will be able to be cleaned up easily. Overall I think that Molly was harder to potty train than Lee was and I don't know if I want to do that again. But, who can raise two boys and not have a pet?? I guess we kind of do have pets but they are very much unwanted, I am talking about the lizards! We have been pretty lucky especially during the day I haven't seen any, I think that Lee is so loud and active that they are afraid to even come out during the day which doesn't bother me at all. Poor baby Easton has had a cold now for a few days and I feel so sorry for him. He looks so pitiful, and poor thing can't breathe at night when he lays down. He is still happy as a clam during the day though, nothing much can make him upset. You all can let me know what you think of the dog issue, I have no idea what to do. Help!!

A Simple Sunday

Today was a nice relaxing day for them most part. Some friends invited us to go to church with them today so we went. The service was held at a restaraunt called The Top of the Mar. The service was wonderful, I really enjoyed it. I didn't lose interest at all. I used to often find myself thinking of other things in church, especially when I was younger, what was for lunch, what to wear the next day, etc....I think a lot of us are guilty of that. I was very happy with the message today and I very much intend to go back. VBS is the last week of July at the Chapel and I am definately going to sign Lee up and I think I may volunteer to help out. This is a great way to get to know people and will also give me something to do. I think some structure would be great for Lee right now, with it still being summer vacation and all he needs something to keep his attention for a couple of hours a day. After the service we got to eat some great food, a huge buffet of breakfast and lunch foods, just about anything you can imagine. We all headed out afterwards, got home and Lee wanted to go to the beach, of course Harley took him. Easton and I stayed home. I was hoping he was tired so we could both take a good nap but he didn't want anything to do with sleeping so I just did a few chores around the house and then watched the Lifetime Movie Netork. I am addicted!! We have three lifetime channels here and I love it, they play great movies all the time. The two boys got back a couple of hours later and they had both gotten quite a bit of sun, but that didn't stop them from anything. Harley mowed the grass and Lee was out there most of the time trying to help him in some way. I must say our lawn looks pretty good!! We do need to do some landscaping now, we don't have any flower beds or anything yet. Soon though, we are doing things little by little. After that we all went to the NEX for a little while, to Taco Bell for some dinner, and back home for baths and a Harry Potter marathon. Harley and I are both exciting because the new Harry Potter comes out this Wednesday and we talked about going and seeing it at separate times because we still haven't taken Lee to a movie. He still asks a million and one questions during movies. So I am pretty sure that if we took him we would be the ones that everyone else is getting aggravated with. I think he is getting pretty close to being able to take and see a movie but we will give him just a little more time before we do. Well, that was pretty much our day, oh yeah Easton made it up until 7:45 tonight so I am hoping that he will sleep until 6 or a little after tomorrow, that would be so nice!

Rain rain go away

Another day, but finally Friday. I guess this is considered the rainy season here in Guam. It can start raining at any minute and when you least expect it. It has been raining most of the day today. Poor Lee, he wants to get out of the house so bad and he wants his daddy. Harley has had to work every day this week and we aren't use to that. I can't wait until he has a normal schedule of 3 or 4 days a week again instead of 5. We usually have been walking to the playground and down the street every day to get the mail. Today we can't really do any of those. The rain has been coming and going all day, and it has been raining pretty hard. The sun is hiding out behind one of the clouds and it is just a gloomy day. I enjoy going to the playground and pushing him on the swing. Easton enjoys sitting in the stroller and watching his big brother. No matter what we are doing Easton is always watching Lee. He is so interested in what he is doing. When Lee is in trouble and won't stop what he does Easton thinks it is so funny and will just laugh really hard and really loud at Lee which makes Lee act up even worse. I am using the crockpot again today. I am making a roast, potatoes and carrots. I am so hungry for it already, I can't wait until dinner. Easton is down for one of his cat naps and Lee is watching the disney channel and asking me why can't we go outside. We were literally walking out the door the other day to go to the playground and it just started pooring, talk about an upset little 4 year old. I feel bad for him. In VA he was so use to going to school every day and being around kids his age. He absolutely loved it. I guess the preschool here is only half a day, I hope it is really academic and will keep him interested. He learned so much in VA. Well, off to spend some time with Lee while I can.

Getting back into a routine

After being out of a routine for over two months it is nice to finally have a routine again. It is nice to live at our own house and live out of actual closets and drawers again instead of suitcases. I am actually starting to enjoy it more and more every day here. I am happy with our home and I am getting better and better at walking outside without looking for lizards everywhere. The boys are doing well and getting used to everything. It is nice this week, Harley has orientation at work and is getting home early so when he gets home he takes Lee for a walk and I get dinner ready. When they get home we all four sit down at the table together and eat as a family. After dinner both boys get their baths and then we all watch t.v. for a while and then get Easton ready for bed. His bedtime is 7p.m. right now. For some reason this is when he gets cranky and we just can't seem to keep him awake any later than that, which makes for a very early morning. Lee likes to stay up later and then fall asleep on the couch every night right now and then Harley carries him to bed. He sleeps a little later than Easton does which is nice. By the time Lee gets up it is time for Easton's first cat nap, so I get to spend some one on one time with Lee and he loves that attention. I am having a hard time getting Easton to take a couple of really good naps a day, instead he takes about four cat naps a day. Yesterday we had a huge catastrophe after Easton woke up from his nap. I heard him crying on the monitor so I went to get him up and his door was shut and locked. Lee had went and locked and shut his door sometime during his nap. I immediately went and got a hanger and tried to unlock the door. I tried for a few minutes and couldn't get it open, I started to sweat and panic. I called the housing office yelling in a panic because my 6 month old baby was locked in his bedroom, she said she would send someone right away to help. After I got off the phone I calmed down a little bit and tried the hanger again and it worked!! Thank goodness!! A few minutes after someone showed up to help but I didn't need their help after all. That scared me! I thought I was going to have to bust down the door to get to him. I don't think Lee will do it again. He saw how scared I was and I don't think he wants to see me like that again. He is always up to something. The day before that he turned the refridgerator off so we had warm milk and liquidy jello. I wonder what it will be next. LOL!! We managed to venture out of the house for two days in a row now. We walked to the playground both days and yesterday we also went to Subway for lunch. I used my crockpot yesterday for the first time here in Guam, made one of my favorite chicken dishes and it smelled so good cooking all day yesterday!! Harley's sponsor came over for dinner last night so we could finally meet him. He is leaving in August and going to VA. Kind of ironic. We won't have it until the end of July, so I hope I can hold out that long. I won't be going very far, don't really know my way around except for on base. At least when I do have a vehicle I can take the boys to the beach or pool and do some grocery shopping. Well, that's all I really have to talk about for today.

Mornings start so early

I have been up now for at least 2 1/2 hours with one boy and the other got up shortly after. I really believe that Easton has a built in alarm clock that goes off at 4:54 a.m. every day. That is the time he starts talking and cooing every morning. I just want to cry every morning when he wakes up because I feel like I just got to sleep, I just lay there and think why can't he sleep until 6? I think that one hour would make a huge difference. Lee has been sleeping until about 7 but today he got up at 6:30. Now, I am just sitting here listening to the disney channel and Easton jump in his jumparoo waiting for it to be 6:00 p.m. Illinois time so I can skype with my mom. Let me know if any of you have skype, it is so nice to be able to talk to people and see them at the same time but in a way it makes you miss that person even more. I think I have felt just about every single emotion possible in the last 2 weeks. I have been sad, happy, elated, miserable, afraid, tired, exhausted, jubilant, you name it I think I have felt it. It has been such a jam packed time period and I have experienced so much, but I know that it is all going to work out in the end. I am slowly getting used to being here and hoping we meet people. The boys and I are pretty much stuck at home every day right now because we only have the one car here and Harley has to drive to work because it is about a half hour away. I can't wait to get another car so we can at least go to the grocery store and the NEX. I am going to try and venture out of the house to take the boys for a walk today, but it gets so hot here I sweat as soon as I step foot outside. I am hoping I get used to that too. I miss all of my family and friends right now so much!! I cry on the phone just about every time I talk to anyone because I am so happy to hear from them. Why do women have to be made so emotional?? That is a question that we will probably know the answer to, but I guess that is what makes us so special. Well, off to do some chores for now. Surely I will have something to blog about later.

Some recent pictures

Finally settled into our house!

We are finally settled into our house after almost a week of no internet, cable, or phone. It is crazy how I realized how much I relied on these things for communication and general information. I was so happy today to get on the computer again and to turn on the disney channel instead of watching Pinnochio again. We got to our house last Tuesday and checked in and stayed the night for the first time, I was so excited. I had been out of our house for two months and living out of a suitcase, which got old very quickly. I absolutely love our house. It is great and one story. If you had been in our house in VA our bedroom was upstairs and our stairs were horrible and steep!! I dreaded walking up those every day after my shower, now we have a bathroom in our bedroom!! We have 2 bathrooms, yay!!! So, the movers finally got here on Wednesday about 2:30 in the afternoon and I can't even describe how overwhelmed I was. We had soooo much, and so many boxes!! this was nothing like moving to VA when we had a third of what we have now. It took the movers five hours to unload everything. I wanted to cry, we were slowly running out of room. Not to mention, every single thing we have is wrapped in heavy duty paper. We didn't get much done that day except for unloading the dishes and Harley got all of the beds set up. It was nice to get into my own bed again. So, that night the drama started!! When it started getting dark I went into the kitchen and I saw a lizard run quickly away from me under the stove!! I freaked out!! I once thought they were so cute, when they were outside. I didn't know they come into your house here and it is considered normal. Yeah, who would know that they love to come into your house and make it a home. So, that night even though it was so nice to get into my own bed, needless to say I sat up all night looking for lizards!Easton still gets up at least once in the middle of the night to eat and when he did that night, I got up to feed him. When I got to the kitchen guess what!! There was a lizard in the middle of my kitchen. I was horrified! I stood at one end of the kitchen for about 10 minutes waiting to see who would move first, me or the lizard, finally he ran under the stove. So, now there were two lizards that I know of in my house. That was a very sleepless night. Let's fast forward to today for a moment, I have started to actually like the lizards a little bit. I have started to get used to seeing them outside on our house and shed and I go up and like to look at them. Harley has had one of them fall on him a few times every time he opens up the shed, but of course he isn't freaked out at all, he is a man! He actually caught one the other day that was in our living room and once I saw it and how scared it was in the cup I wasn't afraid anymore. I think they are so much more scared than we are. I was so sad, I saw one earlier today that was on the floor and he was only a little guy and he was dead, I must have stepped on him. I was so sad I could have cried when I had to pick him up with a paper towel, Lee kept asking where his mommy and daddy are. Well, enough about lizards. We unpacked all day on Thursday until every box was empty, started hanging things on Friday and were completely finished by Saturday afternoon. It was hard work but I am so glad we are done. We finally made this empty house into a home and it feels so comfy now! If you are any of our family and friends back home who like to send us things, please don't, we have way to much already. I have made up our minds that we don't need anything ever again as long as Harley is in the military. I am not looking forward to ever moving again. The boys are so happy to have their own rooms and see familiar things again. It was like Christmas for Lee helping us unpack. Easton has been great. The day the movers were here he took a nap just about the whole time which made it easier on us. I will post some pictures of them a little bit later that I need to upload first. I thought I should just blog first and let everyone know that we are okay and settled into our house. Sorry, we haven't been able to contact anyone until now. Let me know if you want our address or phone number, I will be happy to share in email.