Day 89-90 of 433

The last few days have been good. Yesterday, I woke up to a phone call from Cody, I got ready to go to north county to help some friends move, I came back down to south county to pay for a couch, a recliner, a big rug, a small rug, two end tables, and two picture frames for the house. As I paid, this old man started asking around about who's car was in front of his Jaguar cause supposedly they had "hit his car." Lucky me! But of course I didn't. When I got there there was no one behind me even though he claimed that my car was "right on top of his" or that maybe mine had "rolled" onto his even though there was a three foot gap between my bumper and his grill. You know, forget about the fact that my car has a plastic bumper and even parked couldn't do any damage to a car on a level street especially with the emergency break on, there was NO ONE parked behind me when I parked where I did. Absolutely no one. Which is what I told him. Then I asked him where the damage was because I couldn't see any. Guess where he points... to one of his vertical spoke dealies on his grill. It had been snapped from the frame of the grill at the bottom. I'm like are you FRIGGIN SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?! Well no I didn't say that but I sure as hell wanted to. Then I said, "Sir, I'm sorry about the damage to your car, but I DID NOT do damage to your car. There's no possible way I could have. And even if you HAD been parked there when I got there half an hour ago, I COULD NOT have done that to your car." Period. His METAL grill was slanted inward as part of the design and my PLASTIC ROUNDED bumper couldn't have done that. At all. Ever. Eventually, he gave up, shook his head, and walked away. That was the highlight of my day... But then our awesome neighbors helped us move everything down because they have a truck and they were at the same estate sale anyway so that was awesome. Then I just stayed home and relaxed cause I was way tired.

Today, I woke up to a phone call from Cody again which was very nice. Then I fell back asleep for an hour and my mom came by to help move the rest of the stuff from the estate sale down with the neighbors help. Which they did and now I have to bake them some brownies or cookies or a pie or something for them as a thank you because it was a HUGE task. You should have seen it. I was about to leave for church when the neighbors called and said they'd meet us at the house where the estate sale was so I was about 30 minutes late to church. Which was okay. After church I went with my mother-in-law to her parents house like we usually do and ate lunch. Although this time it was just us two and Oliver because Dillon was out having lunch with a few friends and his grandparents were at a mission meeting at church. So we decided to, after finishing our hot chocolates of course, go to Trader Joe's to look for a coffee grinder. Right before we were going to leave we got notice from my brother-in-law that he was on his way there so we waited for him. Then after he got there and right before we were about to leave, his grandparents got there so I wound up leaving Oliver with them so we could just take their car and go to places without having to worry about Oliver and carrying him around everywhere and such. Well, no such luck at Trader Joe's. No luck at Food for Less either. So we went to Costco. No luck there, but we did find a KitchenAid Mixer for only $180 as opposed to $290 or $500 : D. Needless to say I caved and got it. We also found some cute PJ's for Oliver for now and even when he's a little older. And I got some more of that rosemary bread that was SOOOOOOOO good. And I got some gum for Dillon's grandparents and some bagels for him and his mom. Something for everyone : ). Then we stopped by Bed, Bath, & Beyond as one last chance to find Cody a coffee grinder and we found one! We also found Dillon a nice cup that has a spill resistant lid so he can take it to class with him in the morning and the teacher won't flip out about anything spilling. When we got back to his grandparents house, I got everything ready to go and left because I had a dinner to get to. So I stopped at home and threw together the quick salad I was responsible for bringing and got the address then I was on my way. Luckily it was in town so I wasn't too late. Then it was an adventure getting there because the street she lives on is separated three times lol. (That is my town just so you know.) You can live here five years and still get lost due to 75% of the streets being dirt and dead ends. ANYWAY! That was fun. I got to meet her husband and her husbands co worker. Her husband is in the Coast Guard and so it was nice talking about the differences between the Coast Guard ranks and the Army ranks. Then I went home around 8 because Oliver was exhausted and so was I. And now I sit here in bed practically falling asleep trying to finish this as quickly as I can so I can SLEEP. I had a long day as you can tell. At least I'm busy!

Oliver Update: This little head dancing thing he does when he's tired is pretty cute. He'll mimic me when I do it making it seem like it's a game haha. I really think he has some more teeth coming in too because he's drooling like mad.

Goodnight world! Until tomorrow!

Day 88 of 433

Today was a pretty productive day. I spent more money... But not on little things, things that'll last me a very very long time. So I woke up, took a shower, went to class, went and got my hair trimmed, walked around Morro Bay with my mom, got a few things to send to Cody, went home, ran another errand, went into SLO to meet up with Cody's mom, shopped in Kohl's and got a few things to send to Cody, went to Starbucks and sat and talked for a while, then went home. I've been waiting to hear from Cody, but I haven't so I'm going to go to bed. I'm really really tired.

Oliver Update: He's doing pretty well. Nothing really new to report. He had fun at Kohl's though!

Goodnight!

Day 87 of 433

So today was very productive, but expensive lol. I woke up, picked up Lindsay from work and took her to school, went to the bank to get all the drama of not having my power of attorney status for Cody's stuff sorted out, went to the apple store to check to see that my iPod could still be read by a computer (which it can be), then I went downtown and got some sheets, some clothes for myself, a power sized jamba juice, then to a children's second hand store to buy a BOB Revolution stroller for walking since I'm going to do that more often. Well, not only did I get the stroller, I got Oliver quite a few pants and a couple shirts. So, you'll see that today was pretty expensive. After That second hand store, I went over to Cody's grandparents to visit for a little while and pick up some food that they had gotten for me. I left Oliver there for a little while so I could run back home and unload the car without having to worry about Oliver either sitting in the car sleeping or in the house sleeping. And it's just a lot easier anyway cause he's so heavy. So after I got the car unloaded and some perishable things put away, I went to get some sourdough bread for my grandma-in-law and since I was over in that area, I stopped and got a membership at the local gym so I can start working out. Then I went back to Cody's grandparents and fed Oliver and ate dinner then went home. Exhausted. So when I got home, I did my usual thing and got on facebook and whatnot. Then Oliver woke up so I fed him and then took him to bed. Of course he was still hungry when I put him in bed so I fed him in bed then fell asleep myself haha. I woke up an hour later and came back out into the living room and continued writing this blog. Now I'm finishing it and wishing I had a roommate cause I'm starting to get lonely. Anyway, I'm gonna try and get to bed early tonight because I definitely need some extra sleep. I'm kinda dizzy. I should go to bed now, but of course I'm not going to. Me and my stubborn ways.

Oliver Update: He's doing pretty well. He's been drolling A LOT lately so I think he's got another tooth coming down. Maybe even two! He's definitely enjoying being able to roll onto his tummy and then back onto his back : D

Back when I was pregnant. Cody would continuously fall asleep on my belly leaving an imprint of his ear on my "orbit" as he liked to call it.

Goodnight!

Day 86 of 433

Today went pretty well. I started out with a walk on the beach with some of the other mom's from my Friday morning parenting class. Then I went back home after stopping at my grandmas to talk with my mom for a few minutes. After getting home, I cooked quite a bit of meat so I could easily just stick something in the microwave for dinner so I could eat and eat quickly without feeling like I have to rush because of Oliver. Then I relaxed for a while after cleaning up the kitchen and then I went to church to listen to a former pastor of our church preach. He moved to Mississippi a year ago with his family and a team of friends to start up a sister church in his community. So him visiting was a nice treat. Then I just went home and warmed up some dinner. I made bowtie pasta and microwaved some meatballs with artichoke pesto sauce with rosemary sourdough toast with garlic powder and dill. It was pretty good and pretty filling : ). Then I finished off my meal with a slice of my carrot cake that my mom had saved for me from the other day. And now I'm exhausted and going to go to bed.

Oliver Update: He's doing well! He's basically making it impossible for anyone to hold him still by turning upside down and sideways and backwards and such. He's started doing this thing where he tosses his head side to side like he's dancing haha.

Goodnight!

Day 85 of 433

Today has been pretty nice. I woke up in a panic about the few things I had to get done within an hour and a half this morning, but made it through okay. I woke up at (OLIVER JUST ROLLED OVER ONTO HIS BACK FOR THE FIRST TIME!) 8:15 thanks to Cody's bank calling me. I freaked out realizing that I had way less time than I expected because I didn't have my alarm set for the right time since I forgot before falling asleep. So I jumped out of bed, iced the carrot cake I made last night and decorated it quickly. Then quickly got Oliver and I ready to go to pick up my best friend Lindsay from school and take her to work. Then I got home and worked on my homework for my class tonight. Once the time to get ready to go came around I didn't. Then come 5, when I should have been leaving, I slowly put Oliver in the car seat and ran around like a mad woman trying to get everything done (i.e. the trash out, setting up the lights so I could turn them on from the street when I got home, etc.) so I could make it to my group before I was so late it would have been pointless to even go. Even though it would have been good to go anyway. So my group went very well. We were going through some pretty heavy stuff though so it was kind of interesting, but good. Then I came back to my mother-in-laws house to visit and pick up Oliver and here I sit watching him fight sleep so I'm gonna go so he can fall asleep in the car on the way home and so I can go to bed myself and get a good nights sleep. Well, as good as I can get of one.

Oliver Update: It's back! I realized earlier that I spontaneously stopped doing the Oliver Update so here it is :). Well as I said earlier in this post he just started rolling over onto his back from his tummy and then back onto his tummy. Aaaaand I think he's going to start crawling pretty soon :) yay!

Goodnight!

Day 84 of 433

Well, today was pretty productive! I woke up and dropped my car off at the local mechanic to get the oil changed and all that jazz, then walked to the water company to pay the bill, then walked to Starbucks and spent some time just sitting with Oliver not worrying about anything which was very nice, then went and checked on the car, then went and did some grocery shopping for the carrot cake i'm in the middle of making (it's currently cooling), then my grandma picked me up and took me home to drop off the groceries and back to the mechanics to pick up my car. After I picked up my car, I went to Cody's grandparents house and spent some time visiting there. Then I came back home and have been talking to Cody ever since. I started making the cake and realized I didn't have enough carrots. So my mom came by and brought me some carrots. Then she helped me with Oliver who didn't want to go to bed at 8 so he was up until about two hours ago or so. Now I'm probably going to have to get up early to finish putting the cake together since I have to make the icing and decorate it which I can't easily do since Oliver's been asleep for so long and still isn't sleeping completely through the night without waking up a little to eat. Anyway, I'm going to finish up talking to Cody and then get some sleep because I'm getting tired. Oliver's teeth are coming in nicely! He's getting big too! Oh how I love him : ).

Goodnight all!

Cody, Oliver, my mom, and I at my Friday morning class before our  2nd Chico trip.

Days 82-83 of 433

So! Yesterday... It was fairly nice! We had a nice family BBQ on the beach with EVERYONE which was great! We stayed until around four-ish I believe then stopped to get some diapers for Oliver on the way home and got a Costco membership. We went back today cause they apparently close at 6 at least on the weekends. and we only got there around 5:15 and it took about 15 minutes to get a membership so we had basically zero time to do what we wanted. So we just went home. Then my friend came over later last night with her little boy and we had a sleepover :)

This morning we had meyer lemon buttermilk waffles from a mix I found at New Frontiers with steak and eggs. Although since I hate eggs, my friend and her little boy ate the eggs. Then my mom came over and we all talked for a while then my mom and I went to Costco to do our exploring and my friend went back home. Well my mom and I wound up staying there until basically closing time. We had a lot of fun though! We got a few things each that we really needed wanted, or could use especially since there was a good deal on them (like food and such) then we got a slice of pizza and a drink for the road and headed home. I'm thoroughly exhausted and can't wait to get to sleep. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is not sleeping all the way through the night. Getting woken up after maybe getting only three solid hours of sleep before the last time I was woken up sucks. But I wake up next to the best baby in the world so it's all worth it! Oh man. I've been able to talk to Cody via skype since I got home so that's been nice : ). I'm definitely ready for bed though that's for sure. It's past my bed time! I'm just going to keep talking to Cody until I can't keep my eyes open anymore or until he has to go for today. Or at least for a few hours. But to you all I'll say goodnight!

Day 82 of 433

So I'm talking to Cody right now! Needless to say today has been great! I was able to talk to him a few times earlier too! And when I mean talk, I mean either skype or google video chat. So I can see him! He looks so happy and healthy. A little tired from being so jet lagged and having no sleep after landing and such, but happy nonetheless. He'd say it's because he's talking to and seeing me and Oliver, which I believe completely cause I feel the same.

Well, on to the rest of my day. I woke up around 9:15 because I couldn't get to sleep until 7:30 in the morning because I wasn't tired then I fell asleep on the couch when I did get tired waiting for oliver to wake up so i could go to bed. So I woke up, got ready to go, went to the store to pick up snack for class, got to class late, had a relatively good time in class, went up to my grandmas, talked to Cody there, had a little lunch, went home, talked to Cody again, got tired, made some dinner, played with Oliver some more, put him to bed, watched some tv until Oliver woke up around 11:20 so I went to bed and fed him then talked to my mom about rugs on the phone, and now I'm sleepy but willing to stay up all night just to talk to my love :)

He's my lover and my friend : D

Day 81 of 433

My goofy love :)

I heard from Cody a lot today! It was so great! I love him so much. Everyone's pretty excited to get going so I'm sure travel will be pretty interesting for them. I was so happy to hear his voice. It made all the difference today. I kept busy but was still able to talk to him. I think I'm emotionally overwhelmed thought because I got home around 5 ish, ate dinner, then fell asleep with Oliver at around 7 I think and woke up right before or just as Cody called at around 10:30. Now I can't sleep lol.

So I woke up around 8:15 this morning and got ready to go. I went and picked up my bestie at school and took her to work since she didn't have her car. Then I went to Starbucks in north county and had coffee with a friend then we went back to her house for a little while. I stopped by and picked up a movie and some food and you know what happened after that. Home, food, nap, talked to Cody, now I'm here. Taking forever to write this. But not getting all that tired. I should go to bed anyway though. I have my class in the morning and it's my turn to bring snack. I'm thinking fruit like watermelon, strawberries, melon, maybe pineapple. One of those fruit platter thingys. Aaaaaaaaand... that's all I can think of. Maybe goldfish. Everyone likes goldfish :). Alrighty! I'm gonna head to bed! Goodnight!

Day 80 of 400

Today wasn't too bad. I definitely didn't wake up at eight. I woke up around 11:30 instead. BUT, I got up and got dressed to walk my errands in town today. I actually went around with my mom so I had some company which was very nice. So after my lunch (leftover Chinese food), my mom came over and we went out around town running errands and just spent time together. Overall it was a pretty nice day. I was able to talk to Cody on and off through texting again today. No phone calls though :(. Hopefully tomorrow! I'm REALLY REALLY missing him. But I know he'll be home soon. I have a feeling this year is going to go by pretty quickly anyway. We're already almost a fourth of the way through too! Well, I think my final number is wrong. I'll have to do the math. Yeah. It's technically 433 days including the 33 days before he went active duty and his orders started. I'll change that next post. For now, I'm going to try and... oh face it Katie you can't do anything that requires moving because Oliver's passed out on your lap and if you move him he'll wake up. I'm having a weird sense of deja vu deja vu... I'm getting tired, but I guess I'm up or at least on the couch until he wakes up again.

I love you Cody! We're on day 80 of 433! Hopefully that second number doesn't grow at least not by much if any at all!

I love this man I married!

Goodnight!

Day 79 of 400

Hi!

So I didn't do so well with sticking to my schedule today. I did wake up at eight but only because Cody called (from one of his buddies phones) to let me know that his phone wasn't working and to see if I could figure out what the deal was because none of the at&t phones were working. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong because since at&t doesn't have a tower in Wisconsin, at least not one near where they are, all the at&t phones go off a partner carrier and they were probably having an outage or something. But eventually the phones started working again and I was bale to talk to Cody for a while. We tried to Skype but that didn't work. Then we tried Google's video chat, but that didn't work that well either. So we just wound up texting. Hopefully I'll get to talk to him tomorrow! We didn't have as much time today because of my Tuesday night group, but I'm just happy we were able to talk at all.

Any who, I basically ran around all day like a mad woman. I fell back asleep after staying up for an hour and woke up around 11:30. Then my grandma came down to watch Oliver a little and play with him while I got the dishes washed (FINALLY!) and started on Cody's cookies. I got all of the stuff ready to send to Cody today and headed over to Rite Aid to print out the pictures, return a few movies at VONS, and get some light bulbs at Miner's ACE Hardware since we're all out. Then after all that insanity, I picked up some cookies from Carlock's for tonight and stopped by to say hi to our property manager who also owns and runs the town's pet shop. Then I hurried on over to the post office to get Cody's package shipped before it closed. After all that panic and insanity, I took my time getting over to my mother-in-laws house to drop off Oliver and eat a little something before hurrying over to my group. And my group went very well. Everyone enjoyed the cookies so I didn't have to bring them home with me.

After my group, I went back to my mother-in-laws and just hung out with her and my brother-in-law. Which is always fun :) Then I went home. And here I am! Oliver's asleep in his jammies in his car seat still so I can just pick him up and head to bed when he wakes up.

On the schedule for tomorrow: Bank, Mechanics, Rite Aid to print out some copies of pictures for my mother-in-law, Pet shop for fish for the food, aaaaaaaaaaand... that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Well, I'm going to get ready for bed so that when Oliver wakes up all I have to do is turn off the lights and get in bed. I'll see you tomorrow!

goodnight!

Days 69-78

So! Now that the time for getting my life as a temporarily single mom together is upon me, I'm going to be updating this blog everyday like I used to. And to prove it to you, I will type up a schedule right here and now so you can help keep me accountable.

Wake-up: 8:00 am

Breakfast 8:15

Walk 9:00 

Oliver's nap 10:30

Lunch 12:00 pm

Oliver's nap 2:30

Walk 5:30

Dinner 6:30

Oliver's bed time 8:00

My bed time 12:00 am

Sound reasonable? That gives me some time for myself or housework when Oliver's napping and about 8 hours of sleep at night. I don't know why I didn't do this the twenty or so times before that I said I was going to. Man. That was pretty easy.

Any who, now that that's done I can move on to telling you how I've been doing. It's just starting to hit me that I'm not going to be able to see, talk to, hear from, sit and lay next to, look at in person, sing with, laugh with, cry with, love on Cody for a very very long time. I know we'll be able to communicate every once in a while, but it's not knowing that he's safe and all the stuff we take for granted when our significant others are home everyday after work or school or both. At least I'll have Oliver to help get me through though. That's the best part of all this. I'm not alone no matter how much I feel like I am. I have Oliver who's a mini-Cody, I have my mom and grandma, I have all of Cody's family, I have my best friend, I have people from Church, and most of all I have Cody even though he's no where near where I'd like him to be.

We had out first anniversary and Oliver's half birthday on Sunday! Yay! See the pictures below for what I got from Cody :D

Well, I'm exhausted and Oliver's waking up to eat so I'll see you all tomorrow! I'm waking up at 8! I'm saying it will happen so it will happen :)

Goodnight!

Cody's "anniversary eve" present to me :)

Along with a letter that I'm going to frame and put up!

Do I have the best husband or what?

They bloomed in two days!

Day 40-Day 68

I think that day is right lol. Well, I know I said I'd post more, but obviously I failed. I'm back now. The holidays are over, the insanity of everything has passed, and the countdown to Cody's R&R begins... even though I don't have a date for that yet. Oh well!

So! The most recent news with Oliver is... drum roll please! He has two teeth coming in! The two bottom front teeth to be exact. And yes at the same time. I noticed them on December 28th and I know for sure they weren't there the 27th so they popped up overnight! He's been doing well with them thank goodness! Not too much fussing or anything. : D

We went to Wisconsin to spend Christmas with Cody! Oliver travels VERY well let me tell you. He slept on the plane, laughed on the train, and hung out in his car seat in the automobiles (taxis). We were so happy to see Cody again! When Cody got to the hotel room, I greeted him then he proceeded to go to the room (where Oliver was napping) and wake him up to say hi! Man what a great moment :)

Christmas was great! Cody's dad Arthur was able to join us which made it even better.

After Cody had to go back and Arthur and I parted ways on the train, Oliver and I spent a few days in Chicago just relaxing. We stayed with my mom's best friend. Which was very nice! Overall, it was a great trip!

Prior to this adventure though, all I was doing was getting ready for it haha. It's so hard to believe it's been so long already. But it's good! I don't mind the time flying by! So that's about as short as a recap as I can think of. I hope everyone's Christmas was a great one! And I hope everyone also had a safe and fun New Years! I spent it with Oliver on the couch watching the ball drop. He was passed out in my arms, but it was still nice. I missed Cody a lot, but who wouldn't?

Anyway! I'll post some pictures from Christmas other than these soon! I have to upload the rest of them from my camera and I just don't really feel like doing that right now. I'll do it tomorrow! Time to get everything done before Oliver wakes up so when he does I can just grab him and go to bed! Definitely turning on the heater though. It's freezing... probably like 50 degrees inside my house right now... I can't feel my toes and I'm wearing socks and shoes... *Shivers* Okay! Really now! I'm going. Goodnight all! See you tomorrow!