To all of Nick's supporters...

Please keep him in your thoughts. He is out for 4 days on convoy.

Good news is:
only 1 more convoy duty, and then....

HE COMES HOME!

Also, I got there words from him he wanted me to share:

Also babe, can you have everyone hold off on sending packages? Tell them thank you for all the support, but I don't want anything to need to be sent back to sender if it arrives after I leave.

I cant even belive when I wake up in the morning it will be September.

September.

How did it get here so fast?

Why did it take so long?

I haven't seen my own husband since March 1st.

Can it get here any faster?

Another walk down memory lane+News on Nick!

Kayla is 13 MONTHS old today- 8.30.09
13 MONTHS?
13 MONTHS never flew by in my life so fast.

1 year ago from today, 8.30.08





Yesterday 8.29.09






Also, dates of when our deployed guys are coming in the the works! There is discussion going on but nothing is final yet. I will say, its sooner than we were expecting!

I cant wait until Nick and the guys are out of Afghanistan. If you watch the news, you know its not pretty over there.

August has been the deadliest month yet.

Scary.

Huh? Kayla speaks JAPANESE??

Yeah, you read that title right.

I'm not bragging just because she is my child. But because this child is a friggen GENIUS.

Seriously.

She is, right this minute sitting on the couch repeating the words that Kai Lan is teaching her. Ya know....from the show on Noggin- Ni Hao Kai Lan? The Japanese show that teaches kids words in Japanese? Yeah, that one.

So, not only is Kayla saying about 5 new words EVERY SINGLE DAY in English (and putting 2 words together to say No Touch, Diapy Change, Got-Cha and What is that)....she is saying words in Japanese!!!!!

She isnt even 13 months old yet.

This is NOT normal.

Thank you! One year ago....

Thank you to everyone who sent happy wishes for our anniversary. It was as good as it gets for being apart. I got not one, but two cards from Nick. And Kayla and I enjoyed Pizza Hut. Well not so much her, but I did. She has been having tummy issues with her 4 teeth that trying to come in. I wont go into detail, because it has been quite gross.

Anyways, here are pictures from our anniversary one year ago. Again, we spent it apart. Kayla and I were still in PA, waiting on the correct paperwork for me to be able to get her passport in Philly so we could go home to Guam. It seems like it has been years since then, but at the same time feels like it was just months ago. Kayla and I spent the day with with my in-law's. We went to a festival (I forget the name of it now) and after that we stopped and had dinner at....well...where else...PIZZA HUT.

Aug 24th, 2008.

Kayla and her Grammy, aka Mi Mi.


Mama and Kayla


Kayla and her Grandpa, aka, Papa. He told a passerby that was commenting on Kayla's hair that she got her hair from him. To this day, it's still a big joke we still laugh about it.


Kayla taking a nap outside.

Another Anniversary spent apart.

Seven years today. (Its the 24th here on Guam)
Kayla and I will celebrate at Pizza Hut.

I wish!?

Why couldn't I detect ovulation this easily when we were trying to conceive with IUI's at home?

As I sit on the couch tonight watching tv, I KNOW Im ovualting.

From the left side.

Must be one good egg.

It hurts!

If only I knew someone who was willing to give up the goods!

I would totally make another baby for us.

I don't feel like this family is complete.

This feeling gets stronger and stronger every day.

Part of me wants that feeling to go away.

I don't want to go through it all over again.

But what do you do? You cant ignore your hearts desires.

Can you?

Fooled again

No storm here. We had no electricity all night. It was so hot in the house. Then when we woke up, it will still off. Came back on. Went off again. Came back on. Hopefully to stay. Another perk to living on a tiny island in the middle of the pacific ocean in the middle of nowhere. Power outages. A lot.

I am incredibly bored today. I have nothing to clean. No laundry to do. No cooking to be done.

Is it October yet?

Another storm!

Supposedly going to hit us tomorrow! But not to worry, its not a typhoon. Just a storm. Cant wait to see it.

THE POOR AREA IS NOW LOCATED NEAR 21.0N 141.2E, APPROXIMATELY 492 NM NORTHWEST OF GUAM TRACKING SLOWLY TOWARDS THE SOUTH AT ROUGHLY 5 KNOTS.

UPPER LEVEL ANALYSIS INDICATES THAT THE
SYSTEM IS UNDER AN ANTICYCLONE ALOFT, IN AN AREA OF LOW VERTICAL WIND SHEAR AND COULD START TO SEE SOME POLEWARD OUTFLOW. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS. MINIMUM SEA LEVEL PRESSURE IS ESTIMATED TO BE NEAR 1004 MB. THE POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SIGNIFICANT TROPICAL CYCLONE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS IS POOR.

EXPECT A CONTINUED INCREASE IN MODERATE TO HEAVY RAINSHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY ALONG WITH SURFACE WINDS BETWEEN 15-28 KNOTS AND POTENTIALLY HIGHER GUSTS UP TO 35 KNOTS AS POOR AREA 97W CONTINUES TO MOVE SOUTH TOWARDS GUAM.

Not to worry, the rain doesnt deter us from having fun! (See proof above)

She is an Einstein!

Kayla and her Baby Enstien Flash Cards
Before I took this video we went through her card sand she very happily named off all of them except a few, like fire truck.

So after that, I turned on the video and thought I would get it on video. Only....she wanted to play with them instead of name them all.

No storm

No storm for us. After I struggled to open my eyes this morning, I saw outside a bright blue sky, small amount of clouds and the hot hot hot sun.

I'm a tad disappointmed. I wanted to see a tropical storm. But it's better that we don't have it.

Possible...

Possible storm or typhoon headed to Guam in the next couple of days. I guess we will spend tomorrow shopping for supplies since I'm not in any way, shape or form prepared.

We'll have to get some cat food and litter, first aid supplies, can foods and a manual can opener, fill the car with gas, get a couple more flashlights and extra batteries and fill up containers with tap water, etc.

Today I wanted to get Kayla out of the house. Living on Guam is getting very old very fast. There isn't many things that are toddler friendly to do with Kayla. Besides the beach, I can think of 2, maybe 3 other things to do with her. It frustrates me. I would love to take her to a zoo, to a park, to an aquarium better than the one here, to an amusement park...ya know... all the things you do with children.

So, today we went to Sam Choy for lunch and then to Underwater World. She crashed hard when we got home for a 2 hour nap.

Im stunned at the words she picked up today.

Pear, Peach, Plum, Blue's Clues, Lotion, Grape, Hot Dog and Mat (she was asking what the bath mat was while I was in the shower)

I will put pics up once I upload them.

I got this email from my hubby this morning and I was reading with a smile, then I go to the second part and my smile was joined with tears. I'm so lucky. What more can I ask for? I live in paradise. It can be boring, but nonetheless...it's paradise. I have a very rare husband and amazing daughter whom I get to spend all my days with. A great home, 2 perfect cats (except at 3 am). Really, what more can I ask for? I feel blessed that is for sure.

I want you to:
Get mad at me for not putting my clothing away
Make fun of me for pooping 5 times a day
ask me to take the garbage out 3 times
booty bump me in the store
hold on to my arm and make me feel proud at the bx
tell me to get off the laptop
make a salad while I cook the stake
ask me if I need another beer
tell me not to scare you when you arent expecting me to be there
cuddle up next to me when your cold
tell me its to hot in bed
make me beg for sex
ask me to change kaylas diaper
ask me to go for a walk
get grossed out by my feet
scrapbook while i play a video game


I want to:
Fix all the things above that I do wrong

I want:

YOU

Today updated

Also today while we were out back playing Kayla kept pointing at the grill asking, "What is that?" This is the first time she has even noticed the grill sitting out there. I would repeat to her grill each time she asked. After about 5 times, she said "grill".
I also got out of her today...
Bug- There was a beetle on her dress.
Pop- For Popsicle.
and Coco for Coconut. There were a couple in the back yard that had fallen from the tree.

And it's only 2:30. What else will she repeat today?

Is she seriously only 12.5 months old?

Makes me wonder what she will be saying in another 6 weeks when Dada comes home.

Scary.

Nothing new

Nothing new going on this world of mine. Except Kayla's 2nd top tooth is finally through and now we are working on 2 bottom teeth. Poor girl. Cant get a break. This will make teeth numbers 6 and 7. I tried to get a picture of the top teeth and the best I got was the one above. (Also a picture of her showing me the banana we just picked that morning off our bunch, and a picture of our banana bunch before they got ripe) I cant get a picture of the bottom ones yet. Her vocabulary is STILL going.

Im not sure where I left off with the last list of words, but I will start here:
21 Jul- Kayla said Berry today, for strawberry.
22 Jul-Kayla said wawa for water today.
25 Jul- Kayla might have said Thank You today.
26 Jul- Kayla said paper (she was playing with paper in the car), pillow and boo.
31 Jul- Kayla said Night Night when she was ready for bed, pepper (my friend's kitchen theme is chili peppers) and potty.
9 Aug- Choo Choo for train and Cow.
10 Aug- Chicken and Up
11 Aug- Moo Moo (Another name for our cat Roo), Chair, Bow
13 Aug-Dada's car, Diaper, Sticker, Woof Woof, Elmo
14 Aug-Trash ( I been teaching her to throw things in the trash)
15 Aug- Belly and Table ( I been working on teaching her table since she sits at the table to eat now, and also her belly and butt.
And this morning, 16 Aug while doing the Baby Einstein Flash Cards Kayla repeated, Lamb, Star and Pig.

Not only does she say all these words, but she knows when to say them. For example, she knows to say chair when see's one, and she knows to say bow when she sees Im about to put one in her hair and she knows to say wawa every time she walks by the fountain out front. She loves to point at everything and say "What is that?" So now, it's THREE letter things coming out of her little mouth. It seems she wants me to tell her what everything is and she wants to say it. She is amazing.

August is now half way over. And Im guess-timating we have about 6 weeks left until Dada's big return. It still seems like forever away though. He's going out on another convoy Monday. Please say a prayer. Afghanistan is a scary place right now.

Another set of words....

Today Kayla looked at Nick's car in the driveway and said...
"DADA'S CAR!"

And Im almost sure she said, "Good Job" a couple days ago.

And today...we slept until 8 AM. I feel like a new person.

Last night was...

SUCCESS!

She napped until 5:30. ( I don't normally let her nap this late) Went to bed at 8:30. Then the phone rang at 10:30 and woke her up. She cried, I ignored her. Then she cried at 3 am and I ignored her. She went back to sleep until 6. Then I took her bed and we both slept until 7! I need to keep up with this schedule!

Hope it wasn't just a fluke. It's so hard to find the right schedule. We been on the same one since birth, and well, it just isn't working anymore.

We walked the beach a couple nights ago. Kayla found this stick and she would not put it down.

And today is.......

"See how long I can keep Mom awake day."

Didn't you know?

If you didn't, come on over to my house and I will gladly show you.


I don't get it and I don't know what to do. Kayla is STILL waking up 3 am every day. It's really killing me. She is lucky she is cute and that I love her. Same with the cats.

2 more months of this alone. 2 more months.

Its yucky out today. Still down pouring. I honestly dont know how this island doesnt float away during the rainy season. I'm lucky I like the rain. I feel bad for those who don't and are stuck living here.

I'm going to try to make my Chicken Corn soup today if I can keep my eyes open while standing long enough. It's actually Guam's version of Chicken Corn soup...made with coconut milk. It's delish.

Fish Eye Postponed

We didnt get to go to the Fish Eye Pier.
On the way back form Navy this is what happened:

Feeling better...

Thank you ladies for the virtual hugs. I really really really needed those. I am starting to feel better today. I'm slowly getting caught up on sleep. I have never slept so good during nap time before. I don't know why Kayla is all of a sudden protesting bed time. She has never done this before. Last night she was up at midnight protesting bed and then again at 3 am and then wanted to wake up at 5 am.

This past week...I have NEVER, I mean N-E-V-E-R been more exhausted in my life.

Kayla got 2 gift cards for her birthday from the BX, so we went this morning and scored some goodies for her. Which is hard to do usually at the BX due to the poor selection.

She got a zebra print pair of rain boots. I kid you not...it has rained all day constantly for the past 7 days. And not the rain you are thinking of. I mean Guam's rain. The tropical rain. The downpouring tropical storm rain. I seriously that we would have to sell our cars and buy boats shortly. I also seriously think this could be part of Kayla's crankiness. Because today was beauitul out and she was in a great mood all day.

Anyways, I bought the rain boots today after 7 days of rain and then it stops raining. But no doubt...it will rain again.

I also got her Baby Einstein Language Discovery flash cards (which she already knows what half of the deck is and can say the words!), and 2 Baby Einstein books...one water proof for the bathtub, the other one teaches shapes.

Tomorrow Im going to try to have the energy to drive the 45 minutes half way down the island to the Navy base and hit the Navy Exchange, or NEX.

Navy ALWAYS has bigger and better shopping than Air Force. I want to get Kayla a pool that I can fit in and swim with her.

I also want to stop at the Fish Eye Marine Park.

The Fish Eye underwater observatory is located in a "Piti Bomb Hole". Contrast to its name some say the "Bomb Hole" was actually created by collapsed caves that have been filled with sea and sand.

The "Piti Bomb Hole" is a very popular dive location due to the many fish and other marine life there. Our underwater observatory provides the marine life with a hiding place and enhances the population of fish much like the natural coral reefs do. The local government has designated this area as a Marine Preserve and has prohibited any activity that may be harmful to the marine life.

This is the first and only underwater observatory in Micronesia. Constructed with Japanese ship-making technology, the observatory can uphold the power of a super typhoon. It is 71 ft. in height (40 ft. above sea level & 31 ft. below sea level) and weighs 230 tons.

While on the upper deck you can enjoy the 360 degree view of the ocean. The bottom deck has 24 viewing windows (16 rectangular and 8 round) to view the marine life and underwater world as you stay- dry.



We shall see. Hoping for no rain tomorrow. If so....we will just put on our rain boots and call that a day.

I need....

my husband.

Need better luck...

What the heck is going on here?

Kayla and I got in my car to go run some errands yesterday. To get lunch and go downtown to the Mazda dealership to give the salesman a copy of our insurance card for Nick's new car so I can bring it home.

But, my car was totally dead. DEAD. I called a friend to come jump it. He did. I drive to get lunch for Kayla and in the drive thru my car was dead again. It was on and in Drive but it barely had any power. So I slowly drifted home and turned the car off. So it's totally dead again. I called the BMW dealership and the guy told me it sounds like I need a new battery. I am hoping that is all it is, because BMW's are not cheap to fix. And Im hoping it can get fixed today.

And to boot, Im still freaking exhausted. Kayla slept great without a peep until 5 am today but Im so behind on sleep that it doesnt feel like it helped much.

Im just tired. Tired of waking up at 5 am. Tired of being married but being single. Tired of living life alone and feeling single.

But please dont take this as a complaint. I am forever grateful for the early morning wake up calls from my baby girl. I dreamt of it for years.

And I am forever proud of the man I am married to who actually makes a big difference in this world and I will support him through it all.

Im just tired.

List of words..

Kayla's current list of vocabulary. I know Im missing some. It's hard to keep up with her. But this is what I have written down so far.

Mama
Dada
Go
Bye Bye
Apple
Papa
Mi Mi
No
Ball
Uh oh
Woah
Mickey
Donald Duck
More
Pooh Bear
Daisy
Weeeeee
Yay
Fishy
Doggies
Bubbles
Vrroooommm
Car
Hola
Shake
TV
Baby
Water
Rain
Gavin
Brie
Shoe
Pluto
Shower
Berry (for strawberry)
Wawa (for water)
Thank You
Paper
Pepper
Night Night
Potty
What's that?

I'm currently trying to teach her slide, wagon and chair among many others.

Kayla understands so many more words but hasn't yet said them. The doctor told me not to be surprised if she starts sentences before Nick gets home.

finished story, well baby appt and more...

Ok, I apologize in the delay. I'm going to try to get back on track with this blog very shortly. Life should be slowing down a tad here soon.

So an hour before Kayla's party and we have no cake. My friend came to the rescue and went to the store to pick one up that was already made sitting in the bakery. She gets to the store and says she swindled the guy to put together a Minnie Mouse cake. So that worked out.

But the weather continued to get worse. I only had 3 families show up to her party. 1 of the families come say hello, eat, drop off a gift card and leave. Another family comes, eats, watches Kayla open her gifts from Nick and I, drops off a gift card and leaves and another family (the cake rescuer friend) stays the whole time.

It was quite the big disappointment. It down poured, Kayla was so cranky and wanted to just sleep all day, I lost her balloons, there was a major cake disaster and the turnout of people and gifts was terrible. I actually lost money on the party taking in account for the food. Which still was worth it because it was oh so good.

But ya know what? Kayla wont remember it anyways. It will just be a story in her baby book.

And frankly, Im tired of talking about the party. What a boring long story. Congrats if you are still reading my blog.

Onto bigger better things.

Today was Kayla's 12 month well baby check. The doctor was floored by Kayla and says she is totally off the charts smart.

Kayla is now putting together 2 words. She learns any word within minutes and her list of vocabulary is onto a 2nd sheet of notebook paper in her baby book.

Today she learned how to turn on the vacuum. Now only if I can get her to push it around the house.

Today she also learned how to walk in circles and make herself so dizzy that she falls to the floor.

Kayla gained 2 inches in height since her 9 month well baby check, for a total of 29 inches tall. She has not gained any weight, still being at 19.5 pounds. She is very tall and skinny. I'm not sure where she falls on the growth charts. I haven't had time to check that out yet.

Above is a picture from her birthday party. This is just about the only time we were able to get a smile out of her...due to tickling her inner thigh. If you click on the picture and look closely at the 2 top teeth, you will see why the past 4 days have been rough.

continuted...

So, we got home from the commissary with our little bit of groceries for the week, plus our party trays.

As I had the car door open to get Kayla out, one of her Birthday Day Girl balloons escaped. I tried to catch it, but I was too late. So, I took the other 2 balloons out and put them into the house...not thinking that our ceiling is cottage cheese texture. And POP, went the other Birthday Girl balloon. The foil Mickey balloon wasn't even floating. It was down to the ground. So, Kayla's birthday balloons....gone.

We get into the house and Kayla is still cranky. She wants to sleep so I put her down for a nap.

The phone rings and it's my friend with Birthday Cake disaster news. She tried baking the cake twice but it was sticking to the pan. I bought a 3-d cupcake pan a few months back for Kayla's cake. Because of the tropical rainy season weather and extremely high barometric pressure...that cake was not working. The pressure was so high that my friends air conditioner went out from working so hard. So here she was trying to bake Kayla's cake with no AC. Talk about hot!

It's an hour before Kayla's party and the rain is just pouring. I don't mean pouring like you are imagining it. I mean torrential tropical rain forest down pour. My patio and yard are totally flooded. So my dreams of Kayla's birthday party with the kids playing in the hot sunshine eating ice cream, throwing water balloons and jumping in the pool had been taken from me.

It's an hour before Kayla's party and we had no cake.

Oh boy...

For the 4th (I think) day in a row Kayla has had me up at 4 am with her crying. I assume it's her teeth. She is miserable and I am exhausted doing this all on my own. It's not a complaint. I am thankful to be able to spend all my days and nights with her, weather they are miserable or exciting. It just drains me, stresses me out and Im totally exhausted. Nothing I do for her makes her happy. I think its her teeth because her front top tooth just popped out on her birthday and her other top tooth is just right behind. I don't understand why babies are made to grow teeth in this painful way.

Kayla's birthday party was a disaster. Let me first tell you about her actual birthday. I took her out to lunch to the base bowling alley. We got bbq chicken sticks, a shanghi lumpia and rice...ok, so Mama picked her favorite lunch there and not Kayla's. But she enjoyed it. We then went to our friend's house where her wagon was presented to her. She was so excited to see it she let out a scream and huge smile and climbed right into it. Then our friend gave her a couple pairs of hair bows were a big hit and a an italian charm bracelet with a charm that says Kayla's 1st Birthday...which she will enjoy later down the road.

Her birthday party however, wasn't so great. I am even wishing I wouldn't have spent the money trying to have one for her. The day started off bad with me waking up at 4 am with Kayla. She wouldn't go back to sleep until 7:30. She slept until 9. She woke up miserable again and wanted to go back to sleep at 10. It down poured all night and was still going. I had hope it would stop so the kids could play in the pool with water balloons and play on Kayla's jumpy castle. At 11 we took off to the BX to get ink for the printer. The rain was on pause. So I thought we would take a drive to the base Arts and Crafts center to get her Mickey balloon blown up. While there I got 2 other latex Birthday Girl balloons for her. As we were paying the torrential downpour began all over again.

I had to make it to the commissary. I was do to pick up our fruit tray and finger sandwich tray at 12. We ran into the bx. Got soaked. Picked up our stuff and a few other items we needed for baked ziti and blue cheese stuffed burgers. (Which I am totally craving both)

Ok, I cant think now...Kayla is crying up a storm. Or shall I say screaming? I think that fits. I will finish this up later. Gotta go.