'Cause everybody loves free stuff!

My friend, Amy, posted this freebie on her blog, and it's just too good not to share. You can get 50 free photo cards for Christmas, PLUS FREE SHIPPING, using the promo code on this website. Amy's done it, I've done it, and it is truly FREE. No dollars involved. The code is good until November 30, so go on and get yours!! I send upwards of 125 Christmas cards every year (yes, you read that right!), but at least 50 of them were FREE! Yippee!

Back up and punt.

So plans have changed for us. I hope I can get used to all this craziness. It's not good for Type A planning personalities like me. We are leaving Alabama on December 3. David reports to work December 7 at our base in New Mexico. Packers and movers are coming November 30. So I WILL be having our baby in New Mexico.

The good news is that since David doesn't have to be back here in Montgomery for JAG school until February 16, the kids and I will come with him, and we will be in Alabama close to him for the duration of his nine week JAG school. That means no major separations for us, and he won't miss out on the first month of little girl's life. So we'll have nine weeks in Alabama to visit with everybody, and for us to introduce new baby girl to the world. We will bless at church here. New baby girl should be about a month old, if not older, by the time we leave to come back here, and while if she were six weeks old, that would be a little more ideal for me, I'll take a month old and pray for the best through the 13 hour drive to Montgomery. We have friends and family in Dallas, which is halfway, so we can stop and get a reprieve there. And we'll all get to travel together, which will be good.

So much for enjoying the holidays!! We will do Thanksgiving here in the midst of packing and sorting, then will leave shortly thereafter. Welcome to life in the military!

Christmas Card Spoiler

Got our family pictures made yesterday before my belly gets any huger. Ugh. I wonder how in the world it can POSSIBLY get any bigger before I have her, but I know it will. Small price to pay for a miracle, though, for sure.

Need some suggestions for our family Christmas picture with the four of us. Leave me a comment?

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere.

So we got our assignment with the Air Force today (I know, miracle of all miracles). Actually, we got our choice of assignments with the Air Force today, which surprised me a bit. They're letting us choose where to call home for the next 2-3 years, which seems very unmilitary-like to me. Unfortunately for us, neither of our "choices" was one of the SIXTEEN preferences we filled out our our handy little preference sheet a month or so ago. (Another classic example of wasted government paperwork! :) Regardless, I was happy to at least have a choice. And I never expected us to get one of our preferences, so at least I'm not disappointed!

We got to choose between Cannon AFB in Clovis, New Mexico or Minot AFB in Minot, North Dakota. (I knew all those cracks about Minot were going to bite me in the rear. And they DID.)

Of course, we chose Cannon in New Mexico. Ever heard of Clovis, NM? Yeah, me neither. BUT, and this is a big but - we're still excited. I decided before we got our assignment, that no matter where we got stationed, that I was going to be happy and have a good attitude going into it. I am going to make it home, and I am going to love it, and make good memories for my family and me, and I am serious about that. Life is what you make it. I'm determined to make mine a happy one, no matter where I am, and to plant roots wherever I land. I just think that's the way it should be. There is good to be found EVERY place.

The only thing is, well, Clovis is kind of in the middle of nowhere. See for yourself:
It is nearly 2 hours to Lubbock, TX, 3 1/2 hours to Albuquerque, 2 hours to Amarillo, TX, 3 1/2 hours to Santa Fe, NM....you get the idea. For those of you who will just be dying to come visit us, Lubbock is probably going to be the closest International airport. Don't everybody try and come visit all at once now, okay??

I did see where Clovis (population 32,352, by the way) does have a Super Wal-Mart, a Hobby Lobby, and their mall has a JC Penny's, Sears and Dillards. I was very relieved about that. My friend Emily's husband is a pilot in the Navy. They are currently stationed somewhere out in the desert of California. The closest Target to her is TWO hours away down a bad two lane road. You will not hear any complaining from me here about Clovis, New Mexico. :)

If we get the base housing we want, it will actually be off-base in a little community about 25 minutes from the base (I know, base housing off base?) in a town called Portales (population 12,215). We will be eligible for a 4 bedroom house with our three kids, and they look like this: It has green grass, trees, and a garage. That makes me happy. We're given a pretty generous housing allowance in that area, so we're considering looking at non-base housing rentals as well. From the looking I've done, there are ALOT of really pretty brand new homes for sale in the area with all kinds of fancy things like granite countertops and whirlpool tubs and four car garages that aren't selling. I'm sure they would love for a military family to take over the payment for a few years for them. But the base housing looks more than accomodating, so I'm thinking we can't lose in the housing department. No matter what, I'll have room for my nine 32-gallon tubs of Christmas decorations, my cookbook collection, and every piece of everything I own in the Pampered Chef catalog. And I am relieved about that.

The weather looks really comparable to where we live here in Alabama, actually. Cold winters, but no snow (it's a rare, rare occurence), mild falls, hot summers. And did I mention that there is green grass and trees? No rock pits for front yards for us!

There is a little state park close by
and here is the entrance to the base.

Depending on where we live, we will either be attending the Clovis Ward or the Portales Ward, and church services don't start at either place until 10am, which I'm totally stoked about. Lubbock is our closest temple, and coming in at just under two hours away isn't much further than what we have to travel here to go to Birmingham. I'm excited about meeting our new church family, knowing that many of the members there are going to be military families just like us. Between that and the Officers Wives Club (or I think to make it more P.C. now they call it the Officers Spouses Club), I'm thinking I'll be able to find some friends.

The base has the typical base amenities that will make my life easier: a free state of the art fitness facility, a library with story-time, a commisary (hello tax-free food), a BX, a Burger King..you know, all the essentials. :) I'm sure I'll find things to do in the community and at Ethan's school, so I don't intend to sit around and feel sorry for myself that I'm hours from the nearest big city.

The cut off for the school Ethan will be zoned for for Kindergarteners is Sept 1, which means Ethan may not be able to start Kindergarten in the fall like we had hoped he could because his birthday is six little days later on Sept 7. For those of you that know Ethan, you know he NEEDS to be in school this coming year. Part of the selfish mommy in me would love him at home with me another year, but the other part knows he is so ready for school and that it's time. If they won't let him start, hopefully we can find a good pre-K program, or we'll have to look into private schools in the area with a more lenient age policy, but that kid has got start school this fall and that is just that.

So, now here is where we get into the complicated stuff, and I warn you, it's going to be hard to follow, so read closely.

We thought we would be moved the end of November. Not so. Apparently, David was misinformed (the first of many pieces of misinformation, I'm afraid!) and he will not go on active duty until one month before he starts JAG school. The JAG school, of all the million bases it could be at, is here in Montgomery at Maxwell AFB. He starts JAG school here at Maxwell on February 16. That means he will report to our base in New Mexio on January 16. Anybody remember the due date of our baby, anyone, anyone? That's right; January 15. One day before. That means our baby will be born here in Montgomery. As you can imagine, my mother is elated.

So, here are our options as far as birthing this baby go. I can see if my doctor will induce me one week early like my doctor did with Sara Katherine, and this baby will be born around January 8 if she hasn't shown up before then. Ethan was just over two weeks early on his own, so it's not impossible that she could be here by then, if not before. After planning Sara Katherine's induction so she could be born before David's spring break, I swore I would never induce for convienence sake again. But, when you're met squarely with the reality that your husband may not be here for the birth of your child, your thinking kind of changes a little.

See, thing is, I like natural childbirth. Well, 'like' may not be quite the word I'm looking for, but I try for natural childbirths, and pitocin, the induction drug, makes it even more painful than nature's natural childbirth, if you can ever believe that, with stronger, more frequent contractions. I have no idea what it's like to have a baby without pitocin. My water broke with Ethan in the middle of the night, and I laid there forever without any contractions or progression, so the doctor started me on a pitocin drip at 7am. 5 1/2 hours later, Ethan was with us, and I was able to deliver him without an epidural or pain meds, even on the pitocin. My planned induction with Sara Katherine automatically meant I had to have a pitocin drip, and luckily, she didn't dilly dally around and my hard labor with her was about the same amount of total labor with Ethan, 5 1/2 hours, and I was able to deliver her without an epidural or pain meds as well, but it was harder than with Ethan. Probably because I made her come before she was ready. I didn't want to do that again, but I DO NOT want David to miss the birth of any of our babies unless he is deployed in a far-away country. I need him with me, especially through the process of natural childbirth where he is my total calming influence. He is the yin to my yang. I can't imagine giving birth to our children without him there unless I absolutely.have.to. So I am going to begin praying now that Little Miss Priss will cooperate and come a little early so she can meet her daddy and bond for a few days with him before he heads off to New Mexico for a month. And I would really like to know what natural childbirth is like WITHOUT pitocin.

The Air Force told him he could take retroactive leave (meaning he goes in the hole with leave before he even has any), and take four or five days and not report to our base until Jan 20 or 21, but there's no guarantees that she'll be here by then.

So the long and short of it is this:

-David is supposed to report to our base in New Mexico on January 16.
-Our household goods will be shipped out the beginning of January to either be held in storage or to go to our house if we have one already.
-Me, Ethan, Sara Katherine, and new baby sister will be staying here after baby sister's arrival, living with my mom and rocking her entire world, I am sure, until David comes back for JAG school on February 16.
-We think that David is going to have to live on base in the dorms with the other JAG students while he is attending the nine week JAG school, though no one has confirmed that yet. That means the kids and I will continue to live with my mom while he is living in the dorms at Maxwell, and continue to rock her world. I feel like we'll get to see him most any night we want and on weekends, though no one has confirmed that to us yet. JAG school is not like boot camp, thank goodness. He'll be an officer then, so no screaming or push-ups at the whim of someone with an ego-trip. It's classes, classes, and more classes, and probaby some P.T. too.
-This means we'll only be really separated for about a month, from January 16-February 16, and I'll be here surrounded by family and friends, which is much easier for me to swallow than being in New Mexico by myself for 2 plus months with three kids.
-David is done with JAG school the middle of April, and we'll all make the trek to New Mexico together then to start our life there for the next 2-3 years. I should be all healed and ready to tackle unpacking and settling in by then.

So in a way, the pressure is off for now. I can enjoy the holidays, hopefully my wonderful OB will get to deliver our new baby girl, and I can get used to being a mom of three while living with my mom. I'm looking for a pre-school to enroll Ethan in in January in Prattville. Poor kid asks me everyday if he can start school yet. And a Mom's-Day-Out Program for Sara Katherine probably wouldn't hurt.

We're going to stay in the house we're in here in Wetumpka until the end of December/beginning of January when they come get all our stuff, so that's exciting. This house has three fireplaces, so we're excited to use them now that it's getting colder.

So there ya have it. If you have some question I somehow DIDN'T answer in this post, leave me a comment or send me an email. But for now, it's very, very late. For those of you who know me and my Type-A personality, you know I have already spent hours on the Internet learning everything there is to know about the place we will call home. It's going to be an adventure. I'm ready for it.

Go to this website:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipes/static/sweeps/myholiday/main.html?iid=giveaway-rememail-2009

to enter to win $25,000 worth of groceries for a year and sign up for an email where they will mail you a different cookie recipe every day for cookie baking season. Don't know how many cookies I'll be baking this year, but I got the emails last year and they send out good recipes. I'm so excited for Christmas, as crazy as it will probably be this year!

Halloween Happenings

I'm always sad to see Halloween go, but always excited anticipating Thanksgiving and Christmas. Granted, the next 10 1/2 weeks until this baby is due will be filled with CRAZINESS (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, my sister-in-law's wedding, and a major move...yeah, in 10 1/2 weeks), and all of this with a now VERY pregnant belly and limited amounts of long-term energy. But I'll plug on through and try to make the holidays as normal and memorable as possible, depsite the craziness. Stay tuned...we will find out where we'll be moving this week!
Playdate with the McEwen kids (well, McEwen kiD, Scott, seeing as how Davis is only six months old!) Painting pumpkins and baking Halloween sugar cookies!Pumpkin carving. Sara Katherine proudly showing you that she is NOT scared of Pumpkin guts. And Ethan showing you he is...seriously, he wouldn't have anything to do with the pumpkin carving, and instead decorated the little pumpkin with stickers. So funny - as prissy as Sara Katherine is, she's the one I'd expect to be scared of pumpkin guts, but she loves them! The finished project. Great job, Pumpkin Master Dave!Trunk or Treat at ChurchEthan went as Darth Vader...Sara Katherine went as Cinderella. I put makeup on her...blush, MASCARA, and lipgloss. She thought she was IT. She knew just what to do when I put that mascara on her too. She stood perfectly still and didn't blink at all. David walked in while I was putting it on her and said, "Well, you've gone and messed up now." Sure enough, the next day while I'm putting on my makeup, she comes up to me and says, "Mommy, I need makeup too!" She really was so cute to watch in the mirror after I put the makeup on her when she had her costume on her. She kept batting her eyelashes and turning around in the full length mirror. I'm in for it with her.Halloween night we went over to my mom's neighborhood to trick or treat because we literally live in the middle of a field. Ethan went as a Power Ranger this night (last year he was red; this year he was blue...I give him a zillion other options for costumes and he still wants to be a power ranger..sigh...) Sara Katherine went as Cinderella again, but this time it was cold enough for her princess cape. She insisted on wearing her "glass" slippers (really uncomfortable looking plastic shoes) to walk the neighborhood in, and made it about three houses before David was carrying her to every other house in the neighborhood.And if you're wondering why these two pictures aren't centered, it was because I was taking them in the dark. I'm surprised I got all three of them in the same shot. Okay, that's it for Halloween! Bring on Thanksgiving!

Touched.

I stayed up much later than I should have last night reading this article on the internet. (Side note: I do not read Esquire magazine where this article was originally published, but when I did a search for Dover Mortuary Procedures, this popped up. I got sucked in. I read it, even though I personally think Esquire magazine is just a little step down from Playboy in the way it exploits and demeans women and womanhood in general. K, now that I've cleared that up, let's move on.)

Earlier in the week, I had heard about the 18 U.S. soldiers and D.E.A. agents that had been killed in one day over in Afghanistan. With the death toll at over 50 U.S. citizens killed in the month of October, it has made this the deadliest month thus far in this nine year war against terrorism. I think the total death toll is closing in somewhere around 4000. I had also heard that President Obama made a midnight run up to Dover, Delaware to the Port Mortuary where all slain U.S. soldiers/citizens killed in the war effort are brought to be prepared to send home to their families for burial. He wanted to be there as the ice-packed transfer cases carrying the bodies of 7 Army soldiers and 3 D.E.A. agents came off the plane. These soldiers/agents were killed when the Chinook Helicopter they were on crashed after being shot down by a highly organized Taliban attack. There were 8 additional soldiers on that same day that were killed when the Stryker vehicle they were traveling in was blown up by an I.E.D. Beginning in 1991 with President H.W. Bush, the video or photography by news media of this reverent "dignified transfer" had been prohibited. Both Bush administrations claimed they were protecting the privacy of the victims' families; critics claimed they were trying to hide the human cost of this war and the Desert Storm war from the American public.

Back in February, President Obama overturned this policy. With the consent of the victims' families, their transfer can now be videoed and photographed and shown to the American public. Here's the rub. Out of the EIGHTEEN service members killed on Monday in Afghanistan, do you know how many families gave their consent for their loved one's flag-draped transfer case to be filmed and photographed when they came off the plane at midnight on Thursday? ONE. ONE family. ONE OUT OF EIGHTEEN FAMILIES gave their consent. Something tells me that maybe both President Bushes weren't so far off with their idealogy or thinking on this matter.

Here's the thing. I don't need to see 18 flag-draped transfer cases being wheeled of a plane by white-gloved soldiers to know the human cost this war is demanding. The national news does a grand job of keeping us up-to-date with the total body count. The local news shows pictures and clips and stories of soldiers locally who have been killed in the war. I think that it is interesting to note that President George W. Bush never once attended one of these "dignified transfers" at Dover AFB in his eight years of being President. He instead spent his time with victims' families. I think President Obama's midnight run to Dover to stand and watch as they rolled bodies off a plane could have been better spent on the phone with victims' families in California, three time-zones behind him, offering words of thanks and comfort. It was not the pictures of President Obama standing saluting these slain soldiers that touched me, but rather the sacrifice of the soldiers themselves. Let me be clear about that.

Let me also make a point here: There is NO draft. This isn't Vietnam. EVERY single member of the military is there by their own free will and choice. I get tired of sad arguement of how some of the soldiers who are in Iraq and Afghanistan are only in the military because they had no other viable options for jobs or better choices for providing for their families, and that these enlisted soldiers are the ones that are the front lines holding the guns and getting blown up by IEDS. The military is the job they chose to do, for whatever reason. Part of the military's job includes war, fighting wars, dangerous missions, and dangerous places. You know this signing up. All soldiers know when they are deployed they may be asked to pay the ultimate sacrifice, and they go anyway. Willingly. Loyally. Bravely. Sometimes my heart just wants to burst at the thought of so many soldiers doing what they do every day in faraway, dangerous places, and for their families who have to go on living in their absence, be it a temporary absence or a permanent absence.

I am encouraged that President Obama recently sent more troops to Afghanistan. Gen McChrystal, the US and NATO commander for the effort in Afghanistan has asked that he send 40,000 more to accomplish their goals there. Obama is now wrestling with that decision. I hope he'll do that right thing. Some critics of the war say we've been caught up in a civil war that can never be solved until we get out. I say if we leave, then the 4000 bodies that have rolled off those planes at Dover AFB will have been for not much of anything. Send more troops. The troops know the potential cost, and they are willing to go anyway. I spoke with a Marine recruiter standing in a line at Disney World last month. He said his recruit numbers are higher than ever, and that they turn away people every week who wish to be a part of what the military is doing now. Almost all Marines that go to the war are the ones carrying the guns, walking down roads looking for I.E.D.s, looking for insurgents. And this recruiter in Ohio is having to turn people away.

I have strong feelings about the military. Both my grandfathers were World War II veterans, as are most of our grandfathers. My father served in the Air Force for 17 years. My husband has now volunteered to become a Judge Advocate for the Air Force, making less than half of what he could make if he went straight to a firm to practice law in the place of our choice. And I wholeheartedly support him. Even if it means less money, even if it means moving around every three years just as we will probably feel we are getting to know an area. Chances are high that at some point he will be deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan, or maybe both. He may spend all or a majority of his time in a well-protected concrete bunker writing and reviewing contracts, or he may spend his time directly with Afghani and Iraqi people, helping them write and revise their constitutions and other legal documents. That thought doesn't excite me or give me warm-fuzzies, but I would support him in his efforts of what he is trying to do for our nation and whatever nation he will be serving.

But back to the original point of my post, after a long-winded detour. As I began reading up on what the process is for the deceased soldiers that return from war is in those transfer cases, I was so touched by the love they receive at all points. Several months ago, I watched a movie called Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon, that is based on the true story of a marine that was killed in Iraq and of his subsequent return to his home in Wyoming for burial. I cried the whole way through it. Put it in your Netflix queue. It is worth watching. There is such great care to return the bodies, or in some cases, the plastic-sealed remains to the families so that they may have some sense of closure. Even for soldiers whose families wish for them to be cremated, they are put in full military dress with buttons polished and shined and uniform perfectly pressed before they are cremated. The article I linked at the top is also worth reading, but it's long, so don't start it until you have some time because you will want to read it from beginning to end in one sitting.

I think despite whatever your opinion is of this war, and whatever you feel about what decisions should be made in our government to continue it or end it, you have to feel something for these soldiers who willingly give their lives, and for their families that must deal with the loss. I just remember that all these soldiers died knowing that this was how it may end for them. And I don't know that any of them would do anything differently if they knew what that end would be when they started down this path.

I pray for our President, and I hope he prays too. I hope he prays for guidance and inspiration from the greatest source he has available to him, which isn't any member of his cabinet, or any member of his administration. I hope he'll visit families of fallen soldiers more and their coffins less.

I know we truly do live in the greatest country in the world, despite whatever flaws we may think it holds. America has a specific destiny in the Lord's eternal plan for this Earth and for mankind upon it. Let's pray we have the right people in place in our government to help accomplish those plans.