"Get this baby OUT of me!" - MIL

(Forgive the tacky bathroom mirror picture, please. At least I'm not making a duck face!)

40 weeks is a crazy long time to have a tenant in my uterus, especially when he’s not sticking to the lease agreement. Did he ask about the remodels? No. I didn’t plan to expand the space in there, and if he wanted purple stripes so badly we could have painted them in the nursery instead of on my tummy. My tenant also keeps a partier’s schedule, being up most of the night banging on the walls and disturbing his neighbors (I do take some pleasure in the fact that he often kicks CPT Fromage in the back at night, so I’m no longer the only one being kept awake!)

I kid, kid. Baby Fromage can hang out as long as he needs to, we want a big healthy boy coming home from the hospital and truthfully, I’m not sure caring for a fussy, pooping, burping, hungry baby is going to be any easier than being 37 weeks pregnant in the Oklahoma summer heat anyway. Last week, the weatherman used this phrase, one I’d never heard before, to describe the day’s forecast: “Lava-like temperatures”, which apparently is 115 degrees. A friend made a joke about it melting the sidewalk, to which I replied with a link to the news story about the pavement buckling on one of the major roads. It’s flipping hot here! Most nights, at bedtime it’s still over 100 degrees. Thank God it’s downhill from here. Once Baby Fromage is born, I’ll cool off tremendously (I hope!) and everyone keeps telling us that the hottest time of year here is the last 2 weeks of July and first week of August. Hope they’re all right and the mercury drops a little soon. On the bright side, it’s been fantastic weather for making sun tea.

Three weeks ‘til D-Day – assuming he’s a due date baby (which few are). Never has a Fromage been accused of being on time, much less early, so bets are on that he’s going to be late, but a gut feeling tells me he’s going to surprise us all and join the party before August 29. We’ll see! Shortly after our new addition arrives, we’re off to Mississippi; less than 3 months from now CPT Fromage reports for his new job there; hooray for another move /sarcasm. Lots of big changes coming up for our little (growing!) family, all happening fast! I should be getting prepared, but all I really want right now is a nap.

That Went Well…

Pardon my absence. Moving chaos, you know…

The packers messing up all of my organizing was nothing compared to what was to come!

A U-Haul a size too small (note: a king size mattress won’t fit in the 14 foot truck) was the first crisis, perhaps prepping us for the one to follow…

Our apartment is significantly smaller than the display unit we were shown a few months ago. So much smaller that I’m surprised we can even fit said mattress in the master bedroom. Nothing else fits with it! Goodbye, dresser and nightstand, I’ll miss having drawers…

“Hello, Storage Facility? I’ll need to upgrade to a larger unit please, for all of our furniture that we anticipating using, but now can’t…” (Thank God they had a size up coming available the next day)

The movers went to drop off all of our extra things in our newly-upgraded unit on Saturday, but of course, there was a problem with our security code, and, because how else would this go down but on a weekend, when no one was in the office. CPT Fromage had fun dealing with that.
I wasn’t dealing with any moving chaos because I was in the hospital.

There’s no more convenient time to be admitted for vomiting up blood than during a move to a town where you don’t know a soul. Three long days later I was discharged and spent my second night in our new home.

Of course, once I got home, we found out our air conditioning unit wasn’t installed properly so we spent a fun day in the 90+ degree heat! What’s with this spring weather?! Shout out to our awesome maintenance guy who spent the whole day, plus some, getting us cooled off.

I’m not sure what’s coming next, but hopefully the next few weeks are filled with nothing more than unpacking, settling in and relaxing.

On a more fun note… I was sent for an ultrasound while I was laid up, and we got a great view of Baby Fromage’s little baby parts! We’ve been buying… Blue? Pink? Hmmm… Check back! :)

And Away We Go!

I’m a planner. I like to know what’s going on, and I like it to be going on the way I intended it to. The last time we moved I wouldn’t let CPT Fromage accept the assistance from a moving company, even though it wouldn’t have cost us a dime. Nope, I didn’t want anyone else touching my stuff! How could they possibly know how to do it the right (my) way? Though it had nothing to do with my opting to pack our things myself, that move was a disaster. I had to promise we’d leave it to the professionals next time. So here we are, nearly 3 years later and it’s time to move again. As was the deal, movers arrived this morning.

Now, I promised CPT Fromage we wouldn’t do the move ourselves, but nothing was mentioned about packing. Sure, they can lift all the heavy boxes and I’ll let them carry our furniture, just so long as I’m able to make sure my favorite mugs are packed nicely away where I can find them, our decorations are separated by room and books are boxed by subject.

For nearly a month now I’ve been carefully and thoughtfully packing our things. Every box has an itemized list of what’s inside and a strip of colored ductape to indicate how it will make the 6 hour journey, and where it will end up when we arrive. Orange tape on the boxes that will go into storage, green for things we’ll need at the apartment but can trust the moving company to transport, and yellow for necessities we can’t live without and will take ourselves in the U-Haul (Oops, I may have promised we’d never rent another one of those again…!)

We finished late last night, almost all of our belongings sporting a strip of colored tape. I was so proud! Then this morning came and we met the movers… 2 men who, albeit very friendly, must not suffer my same level of OCD…

Oh dear… They’ve emptied and repacked lots of my boxes! Books on religion mixed in with memoirs? Decorations from the living room are WHERE? In with my serving dishes? Oh my…

Thank goodness this pregnancy hasn’t made me a psycho-crazy-bee-ach. Lucky me (and even luckier, CPT Fromage), the bigger my belly gets the more mellow my mood. Odd, but a pleasant surprise, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time because otherwise this move would be killing me! I’m trying to let go of the stress that comes from knowing that my living room lamp is nestled up next to the coffee grinder, and just be appreciative that I didn’t have to wrap every single dish we own or deal with boxing up everything in the pantry again.

72 hours left in The Little Apple… Lawton, here we come!

(Erika doesn’t like moving either)

One Hot Mama

Another way I’ve been avoiding packing for this move (see yesterday’s post) has been making appointments. We aren’t leaving the country, we won’t be relocated to an African village far away from any health services, but in our last few weeks I’ve packed my schedule with various checkups as though I won’t have the opportunity to attend to any basic needs once we leave the Little Apple.


Today was my dentist appointment.

As a girl, I LOVED going to the dentist! If insurance had covered more than 2 visits a year, I’d have been there every weekend. There was nothing better than the feeling of freshly cleaned teeth. I even enjoyed most of my experience with braces. I was a pretty dorky kid, especially when I wore that stupid “I Love My Dentist” shirt to my appointments… sheesh… As an adult (who no longer owns said shirt), the prospect of clean teeth is nice, but the hassle (and scraping and the like) hasn’t seemed worth it. I’m ashamed to admit, but I’ve only been 3 or 4 times since college.

Thankfully, all that time without a professional cleaning didn’t do much damage and I’ve maintained my perfect record of never having a cavity. Too bad that’s where the good news stopped today. This afternoon I go back to be fitted for…

Dun-dun-dun...!

A retainer.

I thought I did my time! Wasn’t 5 years of orthodontic care enough? Looks like if I want to keep my pearly whites nice and straight (minus the one rebel that shifted, the real reason I went in today) this is what must be done… At least it’s the clear kind, and not the wire one I had so many years ago, and I’ll only be wearing it in the evenings. It could be worse.

I thought being a mom-to-be would make me more grown up, but the pimply face this pregnancy has brought on (something I never actually struggled with as an adolescent) paired with my (non)metal-mouth makes me feel otherwise! Next week I go for an eye exam, maybe I’ll be sent home with big ol’ thick glasses to complete the look!

Don't Be Jealous of My Ride

I’m stalling again. I hate packing and somehow I’ve managed to convince myself that all of our belongings will nicely place themselves in boxes if I wait around long enough. We’ll see how that works out…

Things I’m doing instead of packing?

Watching TV, which is sort of a bust. I tried watching Lifetime, but I kept crying, because now everything makes me cry; then I switched to Game Show Network, but in addition to being super emotional, I also have “Pregnant Brain” and Family Feud is just no fun when I can’t think of any answers to play along…

I cleaned the rat cages. I mean deep cleaned, like 2 hours’ worth, disassembling and scrubbing… I don’t know how 2 hours of that was better than packing, but it felt less terrible.

Spent some time on Tumblr, Pintrest and FoodOnMyDog. (Awesome, awesomer and most awesomest!)

Wishing I could have a hot fudge sundae, but alas, I am too lazy to get dressed and go on a quest for somewhere open at 11PM to make me one. Also, I can’t utilize a drive-thru at Sonic because I can’t roll down the window on my new ride. We sold my truck this summer for something more kid friendly (super sad face - I miss my truck!) and for the time being, I’m driving my parents’ old minivan. I know you all wish you were this cool, but we can’t all be driving mom-cars with broken windows and huge dents on the side!

Sort of being resentful that CPT Fromage is away at a training, because if he was here, HE could drive the car with a working window and go get my late night snack.

As you can see, I’m quite busy at the moment, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some mismatched socks I really must sort.

One last thing…While I’m not being productive, uhm, at all, let me remind you to be. If you live in a state where you can exercise your right to vote tomorrow, go do it! (And if you’re undecided, and even if you’re not, check out Ron Paul. I know he looks like a long shot, but what a great candidate! And it ain’t over yet!)

A Lot Can Change In 9 Months

Oh my. You may have noticed I fell off the blogging bandwagon for a bit. Ok, longer than “a bit”. I assure you all was well, I just came to learn that there is very little for me to say when I’m home alone with no job. Being the introvert that I am, most of my drafts were glamorized accounts of laundry, housework and bill paying. (Rivetting, I know, I’m sure you’re itching to get your hands on those unseen posts!) Forgive me for not recounting every moment of deployment, but there’s not much to say besides I’m glad it’s over and relieved that CPT Fromage came home with all his limbs still attached.

Now that our family is whole again, let me share all the exciting stuff coming up for us in 2012:
CPT Fromage got the branch transfer he so badly wanted, which is exciting for him, and great news for our little family. Because there’s a lot of training involved, he’ll be stateside (read: not deploying) for a minimum of 2 years. 24 glorious months without Skype dates, frequent trips to the Post Office or having to carry all of the groceries in by myself!

In 9 months’ time, we will have addresses in three different states. Lots of Army schools means lots of moves. Goodbye, Kansas; Hello, Oklahoma! (Look out, North Carolina, we’re on our way!) Lots of packing, phone calls to the utility companies and change of address notifications are keeping us busy but we’re excited to start this next chapter of our life!

My last 9 month announcement… Yep, it’s that one…! A Baby Fromage is on the way! Our little one should make his or her appearance on August 29th, and we are over the moon excited!

(12 week ultrasound)

Yes, this was happily planned!

No, we don’t know the gender yet (but a 3-D ultrasound at 12 weeks indicated we may be buying blue!). We do plan to find out and should know April 4th!

We haven’t yet decided on a name, but I’ve been having a blast scouring baby name books and forums for the most ridiculous monikers I can find. Kidding, kidding! (Truthfully, that is a guilty pleasure of mine, but rest assured we won’t have an Areola Minnow Fromage)


Well, enough blogging and back to packing… 17 days until the movers arrive! Wish me luck!