Lesson Learned

We all have these certain pearls of wisdom that we feel the need to pass onto others before we pass on.

Here's mine:

When calling the pediatrician, the first sentence is key.

My husband taught me this. Yesterday, I was concerned about the baby for various reasons so I put in a phone call to his doctor. After being passed around several times, I spoke to a nurse who was none too concerned with the symptoms I was listing. She seemed more concerned that her phone call duties had lasted over a minute. Feeling frustrated, as I have on many occasions in dealing with doctors, I hung up the phone with an appointment in three weeks. Three weeks!

This morning I begged and I pleaded with Captain J, "Will you just call them? They'll listen to you!"

A few minutes later I had an appointment for 10:20 this morning.

"How did you do it?" I asked.

He then explained to me the importance of leading with the absolute worse possible scenario he thought it could be. He said, "I basically told them his toes were about to fall off. It's what ya gotta do."

There ya have it.

And this is what I find myself doing this dreary morning- headed to the hospital for little man. More later. ;)

Life is good.

Life is good. Life is good. Life is good. If I just keep repeating it in my mind then I'll be reminded that it's true. The last couple days have been interesting and brought about some dreadful, awful pretty exciting changes. As is true for most things Army, what I'm about to tell you isn't definite yet. We don't have orders, but we were told to pack our bags after his class is up- we're headed to Louisiana. The post we're supposedly going to is often considered the "armpit of all Army posts". Oh, joy.

I'm going to give it a chance, though. People complain that it's hot and there's nothing to do there, but ya know what? People complained that it was dreadfully cold at Ft. Wainwright and there was nothing to do there, either but that ended up being our favorite duty station thus far. We aren't city mice anyway- we're definitely the country kind so I'm confident we can make it in that tiny, little, humid, swampy town.

My only complaint now is that I'll be traveling while 8 months pregnant, attempting to get settled in a new house a month before the baby arrives, and frantically searching for my new doctor who will be taking over where B. Arthur (don't you just love his name?) will leave off. This, for lack of a better word- sucks.

That is life in the Army, though. You roll with the punches!

Instead of focusing on that negative, I'm trying to hold on to life here in Georgia and enjoying every moment. Just yesterday, I sat on the front porch for hours enjoying a good book. The porch swing swayed to my own rhythm and every now and then, I'd close my eyes and listen to my husband playing his guitar. With music drifting through our home, I realized my life is good. It's very, very good.

We had an 80 degree day yesterday! Around town, girls were donning cute springy dresses and flip flops. The breeze felt amazing and to top it off, I looked over to see flowers blooming all over the bush by my front porch. We picked up our silly, little mutts and brought them into the backyard to play. I sure missed them!

It's moments like these that I know I'll be just fine in Louisiana. My husband, my babe, and my dogs are more than enough happiness to last me through our years stationed there. J and I thrived being far away from family in Alaska. Sure, we had rough spots, but for the most part we had to only rely on ourselves. There's an attractiveness in that to only truly have each other in driving distance. I can't run off to Mom when Captain J makes me mad, instead of talking it out with him. No one is stopping by to help out with the baby, which will help us in the long run to be good parents. I'm sure we'll learn really quickly how our lives  will have done a 180 when the baby arrives! Relying on each other will bond any marriage and is just a reminder that we are a family now- Just J, me, and our little baby.

I'm thankful when military life can teach me something new. In this case, it's just a reminder, though. I must remember to slow down, enjoy every moment, be thankful for the life inside me, and realize that I have all that I've ever wanted in life. My family is growing and I am thrilled about it! So our little fetus didn't get Germany or Hawaii or any of the other fabulous places we put on our list- We'll work with what we've got to make that child the happiest, most well adjusted baby we possibly can. Isn't that what parents do for their children?

Life is good.

Love is an Action Word

There's little else better than having the rain dance lightly on my roof with a cup of hot tea in my hand and my husband, my best friend by my side. Yes, I'm in one of those moods. If you were looking for a slightly emo and poetic post, you might want to tune back in later because I don't think tonight is going to be the night for that.

My fingers graze my keyboard in hesitation, though. There's so much on my mind, but I fear I've bored you with it all before. There's only so many times one can say, "My dog did this..." or "My husband makes me happy because..." or "Alaska is so cool..." or "What the heck am I going to do with my life?" before you all will quit reading my little part of the internet world all together. This is not me complaining, though. It seems if I did have something to write, my odds are 50/50 that it could be something bad. I like to think of life that way. I'm thankful for the present- I'm healthy and happy and taken care of. What more could I ask for? Elizabeth Towne once said...

"It is by the best use of what we have that we learn our lessons and get ready for more things in a higher class."

Periodically (and by that I mean hardly ever and doesn't happen enough), I really try to delve deeper into myself and become completely introspective in my thinking of how I got to this point in my life and how I feel about it. I also wonder what attributes I would like to keep and I think of those that should be discarded. I know I have a lot within myself that I'd like to work on, but I also know that I've come along way (baby!).

Thinking back to a year ago makes me see how drastically my life has changed. During the last few weeks of July 2009, I was preparing to pick up my entire life I had built in Tennessee and plop myself down in the interior of Alaska and try to make it work. Sink or swim.

It's crazy what a driving force love can be, isn't it? I remember saying, "I'll never live in Alaska" and wholeheartedly believing that I wouldn't even visit. I remember my cynical self denying the possibility of love at first sight. I can also easily recall my dwindling faith in good, solid marriages. Those relationships existed only in the older generations or a very select few couples my age...or so I thought.

Living on love, I picked up my life and moved here to be with my soldier who I mostly knew via letters, emails, and Skype calls. I could count on my hands how many times I had seen him yet I knew that I would be with him forever. Saying that still feels odd to me because I was just not that girl who would believe such nonsense. Sure, I would hope for it but I never thought it was real.

Shortly after I arrived here, my then future mother-in-law told me this:

"Love is an action word. You have moved your whole life to be closer to my son and I am so thankful for that..."

I haven't forgotten those words. Love is an action and it's a choice every day. Knowing this and learning this has been the catalyst for the most change in my life this past year. Waking up every day and doing things for Captain J that seem small, but I hope are significant to him makes me happy. Opening up my bible and studying God's word and praying to Him shows my love in a spiritual sense. There are so many ways I can inspire change in my relationships with a simple completion of one little task.

Love is an action.