So, We're Pregnant!

This has been a long past couple months, but this pregnancy story starts up exactly where my last post ends! On the plane back from my cousin's wedding/visiting my grandma I texted John I was late and we needed to talk when I got home.
We knew there was a chance I could be pregnant, so this wasn't necessarily a real shocker, but at the same time it's a surreal experience to think about in a realistic sense.

Where we trying?
Well, we weren't not trying.
We had decided when John came home from deployment we didn't want to try right away because he just got home and we wanted to have the chance to reconnect and just get to know each other again. After our Florida trip and finally getting back into the swing of things schedule and work wise, we decided we weren't going to not try, just see what happens, and let nature take it's course.
Well, needless to say three weeks later, I was pregnant.
I was only two weeks along when I took the pregnancy test.
When John picked me up from the airport he greeted me with pregnancy tests, lol.
I made him buy me Chipotle and take me home first.
I took the first test and it came up positive, but the 'cross' line was somewhat faint, so we didn't know what to think. I went and took a shower while John called Karen, our sister in law who is a nurse and helps deliver babies, and when I got out she confirmed to John that any cross line is a cross line, therefore pregnant.
John was immediately excited and just had this huge smile on his face.
I cried. For a while.
It took me about 48-72 hours to really get my head out of clouds and come back down to reality.
Once I came back down, I was surprisingly at peace and instantly was very excited.
We told our families a couple weeks later by sending collage frames that had our pregnancy announcement in it. Everyone had the reaction we thought and telling our story over and over and over to each of our family members just made me a billion times more excited about Baby C. :)

How are you feeling?
Ten times better now! In the beginning I was so sick. I never actually threw up but was nauseous with just about anything and everything. I'd make dinner and not even want to be in the same room as it. The only things I really survived on was lots of water and crackers for the most part. 

The bloating stage began a week or two before I left for wedding #2 in OKC in June. I was the Maid of Honor for this wedding, so I was really worried about feeling so sick and bloated would interfere...but I pulled it off ok, and yes my dress fit!
Once I got home from that wedding it was like someone flipped a switch, and overnight the bloating went away and I felt like I had my life and body back. Well, except now I had a pooch without the bloat. It was a little pooch, but it was there, and it definitely counts. :)
As of today, first day past the first trimester, I feel fantastic. I joke with John if it weren't for my growing tummy I would forget I was pregnant at all.

Have you had any weird cravings?
Y.E.S.
I am currently in love with all things spicy and salty which is horrible. It seems like everything I cut out of my diet is what I crave. Chips. Crackers. Red meat. If it's salty, give me seconds. I've really had to make a concious effort to keep this in check, especially since I haven't been able to work out the same way I used to. Drinking tons of water, eliminated all coffee again, back to lean meats and am also have cravings for lots of fruits. Living in good ole NC is perfect for that with plenty of fresh fruit options to keep me occupied. I finally able to get back to my lean meat habit which helps a lot. I have also added things back into my diet I had eliminated. I am drinking milk again--well, on cereal. I add salads or a veggie of some sort to every meal I make and treat it as my main course rather than the side. All I have to do is treat John's meals in the opposite respect, and we are usually good to go.
Luckily I'm not craving any of his guilty habits such as cookies or soda, so that's awesome.

Are you going to find out what you are having?
Yes we are, and yes you'll know. We find out in a month what we are having and are so excited. We both agree we have no preference on gender, but we cannot agree on names for anything. We have totally different vibes and thought processes for this, so for now we are holding off on the name lists until we know the gender. Now, we are planning to not tell the name of the baby until it's born, so that is something, as of now, we are not going to tell, but as far as the gender we cannot wait! We got to see a sneak peak of our little butterbean this week at my doc appointment. I was days short of twelve weeks and we knew we'd get to hear the heartbeat but were not sure we'd get a sonogram. Since John is leaving this weekend for the next three months, it was either we guilt them into making it happen, or he'd just have to see pics that I sent him. Luckily our midwife was really cool and had no problem showing us our  little alien.

Baby C at 11 weeks 5 days. :)

The little squirmer had the hiccups and either was extremely camera shy or has major morning attitude. The midwife let John man the picture button trying to capture a picture and this was the best we got. It just would not hold still for anything. John was so elated. Between the hearing the heartbeat and seeing this little thing squirming around I half expected him to start skipping around the room. I couldn't see much of the ultrasound cause John's face was all up in the screen looking at things and asking questions, but to me that was the best seat in the house. :)

We had our third and final wedding of the summer over the first weekend of July. I was really glad I actually looked pregnant as opposed to an overeater at this event! Luckily I wasn't actually in the wedding, so that took some of the pressure off!

As I said before, John is leaving for the next three months. He is going to K9 school in San Antonio, TX and gets back sometime in October. He will miss pretty much all of the second trimester, but thanks to Skype, he'll only miss some things. We're making the best of it. :)
He's been so supportive in my manic mood swings and my new narcoleptic sleep patterns, I couldn't ask for a better husband and future daddy of our baby.

Here's random progression shots so far...I've been really bad at remembering to take them. I'll get better once John leaves, he won't let me not send pictures to him of his baby growing!

5 weeks 2 days

6 weeks 2 days BLOAT GONE!

Bloat finally gone
for the most part!

10 weeks 5 days :)
(ignore my
unbuttoned pants !)

A Time to Live a Time to Die...

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind.

Wedding season was kicked off this year in Dallas, TX where I met up with my fam for the wedding of my cousin Aaron and his fiance Kimberlee. I flew out, leaving John alone with the animals, hoping they'd all get along and no one would die or get locked in a closet.
Aunt Karla and Uncle Rick picked me up and I immediately helped Karla get some last minute things ready for Aaron and for the Rehearsal Dinner the next night. Mom, Dad, and GG arrived together a little while later, pulling mom along with Karla and I to get the Rehearsal Dinner venue set up for the next night.

Once in Texas, dad got a call from his sister, Liz, in Mississippi, that his mom, my grandma, had taken a turn for the worst and wasn't expected to make it through the weekend.
Her health had been on a downward spiral since my wedding in 2008.
While in CO for my wedding, she fell and broke her arm.
Once back in MS she had surgery on it, and didn't come out the same. She lost a lot of her memory and didn't recognize a lot of us anymore. She was put in an assisted living home in Pascagoula, MS where my aunt lived so she could keep an eye on her. As the years passed, she eventually became bed ridden and after this phone call, we were prepared for "the end" to be in sight.
Mom and Dad were, ironically enough, already planning on driving down to Pascagoula to see her anyways since they were within driving distance in Dallas. Once the news came down, Drew and I decided to go with them since this might be the last time we see her.

The Rehearsal Dinner went off great, and Karla did a fab job of organizing it. I was dubbed as her photographer/stand in, since she needed to enjoy the festivities instead of just taking pictures all night, so mom and I kinda took over on that front, and I'm glad we did. She and Rick got to relax and actually participate in it all instead of worrying about picture angles. :)

The next morning/the morning of the wedding-- mom, me, Ashleigh, Karla, and GG went to a local spa and got mani's and pedi's. GG had never gotten either before so this was almost as much of a treat for us than her! After that I went out to lunch with my dad, just the two of us. It was nice to catch up and we hit up, for old times sake, Pei Wei for their lettuce wraps and crab rangoons. AMAZING.
I went to the church early with Rick and Karla so I could take pictures for them while they did their meet and greet with their fellow Duncanites that traveled from OK for the wedding. It was awesome to see them with their friends and finally put some faces to names myself.
The wedding went off without a hitch, and I have to admit that it was the first time I had ever seen my cousin, Aaron, cry....besides when we were young and I would pick on him, that doesn't count.
The reception was at Kimerlee's parents house in Garland where they had set up a huge tent and catered dinner. We stayed all hours of the night meeting people and watching all the wedding festivities. It was so great to be a part of.

The next morning, bright and early, Drew and I hopped in the car with Mom and Dad for the trek to Mississippi. We arrived Sunday evening, as did my Aunt Anna, who flew in from CA. She and dad met up with Liz and went to see their mom in the home while Drew, Mom, and I stayed at the hotel to catch up on things. The next morning, we went and saw her, and my heart broke.
I knew Mimi wouldn't want us to see her like this. It hurt me so much to see her in so much pain. She'd lost a lot of weight and was only awake for a couple minutes a day. So we spent our days in and out of the home sitting by her bed waiting for those few minutes she was awake to tell her hi and that we were all here for her.

Eggplant Lamberto & Marguerite Special

In between watch rotations with Mimi, Drew and I were able to hang out with our aunts some. I hadn't seen Anna since my wedding in 2008 and I can't even remember the last time I saw Liz. Now that our family restaurant is gone (sold it out after Katrina hit) we went to the infamous local restaurant, Scranton's, where they actually cook some of our famous Marguerite's dishes my aunt sold them once the restaurant sold.




While there we also went to the local Pascagoula Library. Apparently a couple years ago they did a full display about Mimi and her Ms. America days which included this painted portrait of her that they still had of her.

Portrait at local Library

Although Mimi didn't pass away while we were all physically there, we went ahead and made plans so that if and when it did happen, things were taken care of for the most part. I was really glad Drew and I could be there for dad, even though we didn't actually "help" much. I think it was a good distraction that we were all actually there, and having a true good time.

I flew out on Wednesday, back to Raleigh, and as of then, she was still alive. My parents and Drew went back to OKC/CO to pick up GG and fly home at the end of that week and as of then she was still alive.
Mimi passed away May 29th, so mom and dad flew back to attend the funeral. Drew and I didn't go, me partially cause of the worked I had already missed at that point, and I had two more out of state weddings planned that I was having to take time off work for.
I was glad I got to see her alive and not dead. I know she would have thrown a fit if she "knew" we saw her the way she was at her home, but I'm glad I was there regardless. I made sure to do my make up and hair everyday we went to see her because I know she'd do the same for us if she could.

Some of my fondest memories of her is when she would come visit and would bring me make up bags full of her department store make up and perfume samples such as Clinique, Estee Lauder, etc. They would be stuff that she wouldn't use, and I'd be crazy young enough to try it. I remember, being from
Colorado, not understanding why she always wrapped a napkin around her water glass (water condensation, lol). I remember when I got some of her Ms. America stuff and just how proud I felt.
The Ms. America Organization posted online a sweet note about Mimi:

Now that it all is said and done...the funeral done and everyone back "home," I'm glad she's no longer in pain. I'm definitely going to miss my partner diva in crime, but as a co-worker put it, "I am sure she'll have them lined up in heaven, looking their best!"

I know I've been on a blogging rampage as of late, but it seems like since John got home, things of interesting nature just keep happening and are worth talking/venting about.

My most recent victory is a continuation of my work out regime.

The past couple weeks have been really busy for Jeanette, my work out/lifting partner, and I.
Her husband is headed out this month on a deployment, and although it's not his first deployment, it's hers, so they've been taking time together to get prepared. Even more so cause she's preggers (along with everyone else in the world it seems!) with their first baby which limits what kind of lifting she can do with me anymore anyways.
I've been distracted as well getting used to my new routine with John home and also with the Jax escapades, so we have been on a slight hiatus from our usual workout routine until things kinda calm down again.
If there ever is such a time.....

So in order to not let myself slide and get comfortable, I decided I was going to pick up my walking routine again which is this 1.7 mile trek through a couple neighborhoods by my house. The weather, minus a tornado here or there, has been awesome and I needed to take advantage of it.
So I started off, plugged in to the iPod, and started walking down my street ready to get my walk on...as I rounded the corner off my street and onto a long stretch or road I had an epiphany.
"Why don't you try running and see how far you can get...?"

For a couple seconds I had mental battle with myself, thinking, "Heck yeah, I'll just run as far as I can and no biggie if I don't get far, something is better than nothing."
But then, "What if I don't make it far? That would really suck, I've been busting my butt this last year and if I fail, that would really be a buzz kill right now."
Then there was, "Man, remember those shin splints you got last time you tried to run? Those were killer, there's no way I can 'run through it' again."

So here I am, having quite a conundrum, and decide to just throw caution to the wind and give it a shot.
So here I go.
I start to run and, hmmm...this feels pretty good.
I flip through a couple songs until I find one that has a good beat for me to run in pace too.
Man, where did all these hills come from!? I don't remember this when walking....
I get to our turn around spot and realize, I ran the whole way.....
Whoa.

Well shoot, if I can run here, I can run back, right?
So off I go.
I stop once at this hill of doom, that of course I didn't really pay attention to going down, but now I'm looking up, um....not so much.
It's not steep, it's just lloonngg, and for this being my first time in a long time...baby steps...
I get past the hill and break out into a run again and turn the corner onto my street, running up to the driveway where John is there tinkering with his motorcycle, about to go for a ride...
I stop on the driveway with my hands above my head, my lungs on fire, and probably as red as my hair.
He looks at me, kinda puzzled, and goes, "Did you just run?"
LOL.
I got the hugest smile on my face ever, and was like, "Yeah. Yeah I did, and it was awesome. I finally freakin' did it."

"A" to "B" is one way, then back to "A" for my 1.7 mi.

I felt like I just won the gold medal at the Olympics.
Also felt like I had just ran a marathon...not that I would know, but that's what I imagine it feels like!
I was so pumped I wanted to go again, but I didn't.
Baby steps.

I ran one more time that week before having a long Easter weekend off with the hubs.
Last week I ran it three times and walked it once with Steph and little Lucas.

I have been so excited, it's such an accomplishment.
I did my Saturday morning weigh in on the 30th of April, and am down to about 124 give or take.

That's almost exactly a 40 lbs. weight loss since November of 2009....I'm pretty stoked about that.

John warned me that if I was going to continue to do this for my cardio, that it could potentially become harder which will make me have to be more persistent and push myself harder. Especially on that hill of doom I still have yet to conquer.

So far he's right.
I ran it last night and thought it would never end. I didn't quit, but my songs weren't working for me and I had a hard time pushing myself. My legs were tired, my brain wasn't there, it seemed more humid than normal......it was rough, but I didn't quit....probably just took longer. :)
Really the only positive thing I kept telling myself, is that, well, since it's hot, not matter whether I'm running or walking, I'm burning something, so just keep trucking...

I haven't timed myself yet. Not sure I am going to just yet either.
I'm focusing on the running itself, not the time right now.
Again, baby steps.

I have technically reached my weight loss goal, and as long as I don't really gain any significant weight, I'm probably not going to check the scale as much anymore. As long as I keep my healthy diet and my workout routine, I think I'll finally be ok.

My new goal is to be healthy. A lot of people have their own definitions of that, and I think I'm still learning what mine is, but all I know is that this journey has been tough as nails, but so worth it, so I can't wait to see what other challenges will arise...
This journey, in my eyes, isn't over, it'll continue, and I'll continue to try to find something to push myself harder, regardless of what the scale says and what challenges come my way. I'm never going to go back to "that place" ever again.

Who needs kids anyways!?

Man, have we been put through a major trial...
Any hopes of baby fever have been put to rest for now, thanks to my little lion of a cat, Jax.

We started noticing issues with him when John got home, that we attributed to "change."
Issues, like, just being bad. And change, like, John being home and change of routine.
Kids do this too right?.....hmmm.....

And being bad entails chewing on things, knocking things over, jumping Bella AND Hurley for no apparent reason, hissing at John....well it went one step further a couple weeks ago when he started peeing on things.
Yes, I know it's gross, but he totally unloaded a full bladder on one of our couch cushions that sent me over the edge.
What's the deal cat?!
This wasn't like him at all.
The ONLY other time I could ever thing of him peeing or acting out like this was when John had just left for this last deployment and he just felt the need to pee on Hurley's bed for some non apparent reason.

So, what do we do, well we go to great lengths to save our couch cushions, just for him to pee on the other two...so we spent an entire weekend elbow deep in bleach and any and every remedy we could find so get rid of the odor and stain to try to save our couches....
After the third incident, I call my friend Jeanette in despair...what do I do!?
I ran into my boss at Walmart right after getting off the phone with Jeanette, and luckily for me he had some previous experience with cats and this problem, so I called the vet for little man to get checked out.

John dropped him off first thing on the 11th, and I got a call mid-morning from the vet telling me they did a urinalysis, and he has a pretty bad UTI.
Cats can get that??
But how?
So I got to the vet after work to get the 411.

Apparently there is no real answer to why.
They gave him antibiotics, told me it was now a waiting game and to keep him separated from the other animals for about two weeks until he's kicked it. They told me that as long as he pee's something, that's good, it's when he goes and nothing comes out that it's bad....They also told me maybe I should clean his litter more often....more often than once a day?
Wow, ok.
So we started the week with this new method of Jax quarantined in the office (which we now refer to as Jax's apartment) with his own food, water, litter, everything separate from Bella and anything else that he shared with Hurley.
All was well and good for the next couple days minus a few minor accidents here and there. You could tell he was trying so hard to "be good."
He would go to the litter box and cry while he tried to pee.
He was losing weight....
It was awful.
I cried and cried, not knowing what to do, and not knowing what I could do different to help him....
Is this what being a mom is like??...uugghh....no bueno.

I would go into work looking like a train wreck just from being so upset that I didn't know how to help my poor animal. Luckily for me I work around some cat lovers, so they were helpful in consoling and offering up any ideas they had to help us or him.

Later in the week, I woke up to find some blood in his litter box.
Hit the "Instant Panic" button in the Christian household.
I called the vet and took him in for for tests, etc...
John picked him up this time and came home with paperwork on FLUTD (AKA: Feline Lower Urniary Tract Disease or also called Feline Idiopathic Cystitis), a weeks worth of oral pain med injections, and also some "special" cat food for cats with this disease.

Now the confusing part is all this paperwork about FLUTD expressed how FLUTD is a theory not a known diagnosis. They don't know what causes it, they don't really now how to fix it, and all you can do is change diet, and "wait it out."
So reassuring, especially after $400 in vet bills....for a theory....ugh.
This paperwork also went through all the possible things that could cause a cat to get sick to this level...pretty much it's an imbalance of their hormones in the brain and different things can cause this outcome to become prevalent.
From change in routine (my thought from the beginning) to OCD type things like cats having too MANY toys which is stumping his "nature."
One thing that stuck out to me in this literature, is that believe it or not, cats weren't meant to poop in clay filled boxes, eat processed foods, and be sheltered indoors with stuffed toys all day. It's against their nature. Some cats just can't mentally handle that and amongst many other things, this can cause the hormonal imbalance that no one really understands....

Man I need therapy just typing that out....

This weekend John was gone to Lumberton for a motorcycle safety course he enrolled in, allowing Jax and I, along with my other babies to have a real quiet "normal" weekend (normal in the sense of how things were when J was deployed). I hated that John being home from deployment could be potentially the problem, so while he's been on the mend I've made sure whenever John is home, I put the hyper pup outside and have John given him treats and love on him and it seems to really be working...We got through the whole weekend without any accidents and if anything saw some life come back into my little lion.
Despite some hard core sleeping throughout the weekend, he got his voice back, being the whiney little man that he always once was. I peeked in at him and Bella bathing each other, which hadn't happened in a while. The past couple weeks he'd hiss at her any time she came near him, and to her defense, she actually looked worried for him. I think animals can tell when the others are sick...she would kinda watch over him in a way.
He even got some spunk back and totally goosed Bella when she wasn't paying attention and I had never been so happy to see it happen.

He is still on quarantine and is going to stay that way through this next weekend while we are gone on the 108th Marriage Retreat. We've finished all the pain med injections they gave us, he seems to like the new "special" food he gets to eat...we're just trying to find a routine now that we can swing the three of them in that will work with John and I too.

If this experience and my emotions is ANYTHING like having a child, then I'm officially in for some hard times.
John and I would talk often about how, "is this how we'll be when we have kids?"
We were so serious about finding away to help this poor sick animal.
I was in pain for this cat. I just cried and cried because he was just so helpless and had no voice to let me know what was wrong.
Dang, it's making me tear up to talk about it....
I love my furry babies to death, and if there is one thing I've learned in all this it is, if we was willing to go through all this work for the love of my cat-- then our children are going to have too much love in their lives, if there is such a thing....I'm ok with that. It's reassuring.

Amelia Island Professional Pictures

First off, it is SO HARD to pick favorites...I think I heart them all.
Pam Bell, of Pam Bell Photography did a fabulous job and appreciate her support and patriotism in doing this for FREE for us as a military couple.

Thanks Pam!

Just Call Me Dorothy

Oh man are all my Oklahoma people going to be shaking their heads at me....
I am ashamed.
Sigh.

SOOO, after we found out for sure we were getting John's pay as usual, plans continued for John to purchase his toy of this deployment--a motorcycle.
John and his battle buddy/personal friend, Tom Stoffel went on a quest to find John's new (used) bike.
The week prior a deal with a friend fell through so John was having to start over in the wants versus needs of what kind of bike he wanted.
To my dismay, I dug my own grave, by looking on craigslist.com and finding an ad for a motorcycle that looked like something he was looking for. I asked around about the specs of it and turns out it was a pretty good deal, so Tom and John made plans to go check it out.
Well, lloonngg story short, it was "the one."
Am I an awesome wifey or what?!
So on April 9th, John and Tom went to Stedman to get his bike.
Well, on the 8th, a co worker mentioned that the weather for the weekend was 100% chance of rain.
Ok, well that sucks for motorcycle weather, but ok.
While Tom and John were out getting on their motorcycle madness, the clouds came rolling in and brought in the most beautiful rain smell ever. The lightning started, the thunder rumbled, and eventually the power went out...but hey, we get rainstorms here all the time, so didn't think anything of it, it is what it is.
A couple hours later the guys drive up with the bike into the garage just as the clouds broke open and it was like God took a swimming pool of water and just dumped it on our house....
So we are sitting in the garage, with the door open, watching the rain, the guys drinking a beer playing on John's motorcycle.
Then the winds started to blow.
Like, really started to blow--to the point where we closed the garage and went inside and started a game of checkers while waiting for it to stop raining.
I get a text from my girl, Steph that a tornado dropped down by their apartment complex.
I read it...I understood it....but I didn't comprehend it...there IS a difference. 
Not to say I didn't believe her, but I read her text and was like, huh, well we are under a tornado warning, but if there was a tornado at her house then there would have been one at ours too, and there wasn't so....hmmm.....
Not even 15 minutes later the rain stopped and it was the most bright sunshine you'd ever seen came bursting through the windows. Kids ran outside to play, one with his kite, running down the road trying to collect on the final wind gusts breezing by.


We decided to take a few pictures of the motorcycle and John to commemorate the big day...notice the driveway still wet...sigh.

Sweet, the rain stopped, lets go get some dinner to celebrate the bike...even though he can't legally drive it yet, LOL.
So we hop in Tom's truck pull out of our subdivision and immediately notice all the power is out on the big streets...The traffic lights aren't even blinking.
Well that's weird!
We drive on to Panera Bread and it's empty, power is out.
We drive towards post, all the while I'm texting Steph, telling her maybe we shouldn't all go bowling tonight as we planned cause if Fayetteville is out of power, Bragg probably is too.


As I'm texting and we're driving we come up to one of the main gates to Bragg, called All American. It's backed up as far as the eye can see and to my complete surprise, people are turning around and driving down the median the opposite direction and going up the off-ramp of the exit behind us. 
What the heck...??
That's when I get a text from Stephanie saying, "Katie, I don't think you realize how bad this is."

Ok, we're obviously missing something.
I guess we aren't going bowling.
Let's just go home.
So we turn around and head home, well at this point all the main intersections are lined with Fayetteville Police squad cars directing traffic cause all the street lights are still out.
We come up on the intersection where we would turn to go to Steph's house, and they aren't letting anyone go down the road that direction.
Weird......
We get home and because we still have no power, I have no internet or tv to see what's going on, so Tom decides to brave the Bragg gates to get back to his barracks, while John and I run damage control on our poor animals who hate the thunder.

The power comes back on later that night, but our cable and internet are still down. I call our service provider where they have an automated message saying that due to the TORNADO service is down and they are trying as fast as they can to restore service.
Tornado...what tornado?? Oh, that one Steph texted me about??
It can't be, we only live about 2 miles away from them....how could there have been a tornado and we not see it....or rather, HEAR it.
Then our phones start blowing up from all the people we know all over town letting us know they are ok, and wanting to know if we are ok....
Ok from WHAT?!?!
Like, seriously? A tornado was over by us??
What is all this about, seriously.

The next morning John and I decide we need to go investigate this craziness. Well, we didn't get too far. We could only turn one way out of our neighborhood cause the police had it blocked off...well that's weird...fine, so we went the long way. All the street lights were still out....but power was back on here and there throughout town, so we went to the local Walgreens and I bought a newspaper to see what was going on...and here's the story I see on the front page...

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/04/16/1087211

Along with this article was a map of this tornado's path and my heart sunk....we were right in it and had no idea....we were standing in our garage, with the door open, watching the rain, messing around with John's new motorcycle with absolutely no idea that we were in any potential danger....
Here's the map, where the PINK STAR is where we live, RED STAR is where Steph lives...

I could technically plant little stars all over this map to show where a lot of friends live.
We are so naively blessed to not only just have rain ourselves, but that all our friends are ok too.
A couple of our friends had to tough it out the next couple days when it came to power, etc. Lots of patience tried and food wasted....TONS of damage everywhere.

There is still a lot of damage, and as I write this post, two weeks later, we are under another tornado warning....Apparently there aren't sirens here like in good ole OK to warn me of imminent danger, so lesson learned here, is not matter if you live in a state that calls a snow day for "potential of snow," take the thunderstorms and tornado warnings seriously.

Or close the garage door at least.

The Hard Way

I hate hearing, "Sometimes you gotta learn things the hard way."
Blah, what an adult comment to make, LOL.
Once our post deployment vacation to Florida was over John still had one week's worth left of leave still and while we would have preferred for him to enjoy having the time off, we were pegged with a dilemma none of us ever thought we'd face.
One of the main reasons a lot of people join the service is for job security and the benefits. The hours are long and the jobs are hard and so strenuous on everyone involved, but the financial and mental security that pay and benefits brings, makes it somewhat tolerable.

Here we are on his last week of leave, and all we can do is watch on the news about how he might get his pay frozen if the budget for our country is not fixed, etc. Well that's not the way it's supposed to work!
John and I are fortunate to have my income in the mix as well, which takes some pressure off. Thank God we hoarded most of this extra deployment money so we could pay cash for his truck, but also build up a nice nest  egg for those rainy days, those what if's, and those emergencies that may come along. Therefore we were not as worried as some, however, a lot of families in the military don't have that option.
Their service member's pay, IS their only pay.

I'm sorry but when my husband and the 108th boys JUST get home from their year long tour to Iraq and two weeks later you tell them they won't get paid till "things are figured out," there is something wrong with that picture. We would hear rumors and stories around post how, soldiers that JUST left on their tour, were having to tell their wives, in some cases this was their first deployment, that they might not get paid...how can you tell a stay at home mom with kids something like that?
How did we get to this point where not only livelihoods are threatened, but in all honest the integrity of our government system that is in such peril that it has to come to this?

I've always had this stigma, that even though we, as military families, are asked to sacrifice more than any civilian would ever understand, I don't want to be treated different than anyone else. I want to pay my dues and go through the same rules as someone else NOT in my shoes. In any aspect in life that may apply too. But here I was being challenged on that stigma thinking, wait a minute, after what I put up with in this lifestyle, um, what about me??

At first, John and I dismissed that this would even happen, I mean, how could something like that happen? Something will work out.
But then emails from command started trickling down telling everyone how everything was going to go down if an agreement wasn't met.
Wow, this is really real. Ok, so what do we do....??

Well the motorcycle plans he had, had to wait, that was number one, LOL.
We were prepared to spend the weekend in eating leftovers and finding creative things to do at home instead of our usual weekend plans of going out to eat and hanging out with friends, etc.

Fortunately for everyone, things were "fixed" (were they really anyway??) and we got our pay. Then I started seeing people leaving comments on Facebook, etc. how this "threat" of taking away military pay was just a political ploy and the government would never really let that happen....man that just got me fired up. That's so easy to say when you're not the one getting emails from your husband's boss's boss telling you what's going down. It's easy when it's not your personal livelihood at stake.
Then there was the whole attitude of, well if the military weren't deployed we'd save money, so bring them home and save a couple bucks.
Really? REALLY??
Yeah, uh, we get paid regardless of "where we are," first of all.
Secondly, as much as this effects my life every other year or so with deployments, I'd rather the fighting be over there, than here.
Just sayin.

One thing that stuck out to me the most in all of this pandemonium is how financially desperate some people in this country really are. Once things were solidified about our pay and everyone calmed down, another email was sent out from Command stating that this should be a wake up call for soldiers and families that just as you have to always be prepared for combat and the unknown, you also have to be prepared for all other unknowns such as this and not to be lax in your finances.
It broke my heart yet made me extremely irritated in how unprepared people were for a challenge like this.
You can't live without money, that's a fact.
And some people can't help but live paycheck to paycheck, I've been there.
But in my mind, there's really no excuse.

I know it probably sounds easy for me to say, since we have dual income and all, but you don't have to have dual income to have your game together.
This potential crisis solidified, for John and I, that our goals and our plans we've set in place with our finances were the right decisions for our financial future so that if and when an instance like this presents itself, we can take it in swing with everything else this lifestyle may bring and not have to live off ramen.

At our age, I'm proud of that, and it makes me even prouder that we set these goals, obtained them together, and that it worked. Not to toot my horn too much, but I'm totally patting myself on the back right now. :)