Family and sibling update

I meant to post this in my last post, but I was distract by a person, by the name of Jeffery, sticking his head next to me, then startling me. So, I finished there.

There is so much going on just within the first few weeks of the year! Oh my gosh!
-Jeff and I bought a house, I'll wrap this up and do MORE paperwork to be faxed.
-Hillary leaves for China for 10 months, starting tomorrow.
-Dad and Mom are going to Bermuda for a job interview, for 6 days.
-Mikelle won a trip to Mexico, and was here for New years with Mouse. (her daughter, Maleah)
-Seths spanish is so good, he's been asked how long he's been speaking eglish for!
-Cody is in Southern California, and still loving it. Still as tenderhearted as before.

Briefly: My dad unfortuately lost his job in September, he's spent hours online looking hither and yon for a new job. No luck. Until December, he FINALLY got a call from someone about a company in BERMUDA that needed a CIO. (Chief Informations Officer, and he was CIO at his last job. So, he's obviously qualified. He basically does super advanced C++ and IT stuff. He Spent 18 years in school getting degrees). My mom is a prayerful person, she prayed about going. She felt like she needed to wait, when they'd just seen airfare for $300 roundtrip to Bermuda. Lo and behold, they get back to my parents a few days ago, and they'd booked my moms plane ticket for her to accompany my dad! And, they'd set them up with a realtor when they get there to look at rental properties. Look up Bermuda real estate, you will poop your pants it's more expensive than Hollywood. So, they leave the 15th for 6 days in Bermuda!

Hillary! She's taking off to Beijing, China, to teach english! AGAIN! I don't know why she'd want to do that, but I'm thinking she must have really liked it enough to go back a 2nd time. And, this time, she's got a friend from the singles branch, Drew (female actually), is going with her. Her contract is up in June, but theres a large possibility they'll extend her until October. It was bittersweet saying good bye to her. Over the years, she's become a friend to me, being that she's my ONLY sibling nearby. I was over at my parents house, and saw she'd literally packed up her whole room. It was sad in a way. Oh well, she'll be back right as Cody is home!

Cody is loving California, of course! He's away from the rain! I talked to him on christmas, and he's extremely happy, and loves teaching people. Cody is a very loving person, soft spoken when he's speaking of something he loves, which at this time, he's extremely passionate about his love of god, being on a mission for church has made him so sweet and loving. He gets home 2nd week of October.

Seth is surving a new england winter! I talked to him o christmas as well. He's really good at spanish! He said a few things, and I was left clueless! My mom confrenced him in to my Elledge Grandparents, and spoke to my step grandma, who's 1/2 mexican and she was incredibly impressed with how he sounded. (she's fluent in spanish) He was snowed in for 3 days, and hada new copanion and he didn't know him that well, so they just played game for 3 days straight. Oh how fun! JUST KIDDING! Seth is a very proud uncle. He adores his 2 cute little nieces, but oh man! He was ecstatic to have a nephew! He even announced it at church, haha.

Anyway, all is well, all is well!

Starting over

Well, it's finally happened.

We bought a house!!!!!

Jeff's about to leave to recruiting training on the 23rd in Pensacola. So, getting it to close this month, it's possible, so long as we get the ball rolling on things. We're in the middle of packing things up, putting them in storage, and all that lovely stuff.

We'll be living about an hour and fifteen minute from where we are currently. In the long run, it's about 50 miles from my parents. Seems far, but when you're going up and down it on freeways, it's not too bad of a drive. Somewhat scenic if anything.

The house in in the city of Puyallup. Come visit us in September, and we'll all go to the fair! It's the biggest in the state.

The house itself, we got an AMAAAAAAZING deal on. It was foreclosed. We'd seen several that were, and in very poor condition. This one was in perfect condition, just needs a few spots on the carpet cleaned, and it's good to go. It was built in 2004, is a 3 bedroom, 2.75 bathroom. We'd really wanted a 4 bedroom, but this has a massive bonus room, so if needs be, we'll wall it up in time, and voila, there's our 4th bedroom. it's 2295sq ft. We will need all new appliances. That's not fun, but oh well. That's one thing we kind of expected.

I've been doing my homework on the school districts and all that, looks good. Espcially that the school is LESS than 2 miles from our house. I'm going to pay a visit to the staff to see the 2nd grade teachers, being that I want to be sure that everything is "right", for Leena. She'll be with us full time in June, we're transitiong her slowly. It's in a gated community, so makes it feel safer in an aspect. It's in a huge development.

Either way, I'm happy to be out of Bremerton come the 23rd, and closer (Sorta) to family. For those of you who want the address, let me know! Pending if we have cell service out there or not, we'll set up a landline in time.

I'm excited because all of my experiments with interior decorating, will pay off. I've got the layout planned on 3 rooms. Our master bedroom, formal living room, and living/dining area. My friend Julie has offered to help me, so I'm excited for that!

We're excited that Jeff isn't going on deployment, more time with the kids, and a regular work schedule. So far, the year is off to a good start and 2 months of house hunting has finally paid off!

Poor car!

I wrote in the blog below, that I'd explain the chain story. Well, here it is.

It snowed last week, and Jeff had said, he'd leave the mazda and take the other car to work, that way if I needed to go anywhere, I'd have the 'safer' car. It had literally about a half inch on the ground. I realized I needed a few things, and I probably could get them at the corner store on the highway nearby, which is less than a mile from our house. So, off we went, well. It wasn't easy getting there, and was going to be worse getting back. While I was there, a jiffy lube employee was there also. I asked him to help me put our cables on. Well, Jeff forgot to stick the tightening rubber cables in with the metal ones. (so they don't fly off, I didn't even get the stuff I needed to get!) So, as I'm driving home, I hear this horrible noise, I knew they were loud last time, but not that loud as they were at that moment. They were coming off. @#%$! Landon starts to cry. I'm about to go up a huge hill...do I stop and get stuck, and maybe go into a ditch or hit another car? Or, keep going and suffer potential body damage to the car. I'll take the last option. I kept going. I get home and our driveway has about 3 inches of snow at this point. I decide to leave the car on the street. Our car isn't a good snow car. (mazda 3) I then see all the damage that ONE cable flying around, has done. Oh my hell! I am in SOOO MUCH TROUBLE! it's pretty bad. If you're staring at the driver side, you'll see the wheel well torn apart, the lights scuffed, a dent in the very bottom of the door (size of a tennis ball) The hood has tiny dings in it, the whole side next to the lights, and below, are totally torn to hell. Oh, I'm in for it.

What do I do? I come in. And immediately call Jeff at work. He was on duty, so he'd be there for at least 24 hours, and if I tell him now, it'll give him time to cool off and not be mad at me. And, if I tell him he forgot to put the rubber parts in there, that keep the chains on, he can't be totally mad at me. I call him and tell him. His only reply was "why did you go anywhere?!" I just said I didn't think a half inch was going to cause so many problems, and he left the car for me to use if I needed to. he came home, assesed it, and we think it's going to cost about $1200-1500 to fix. It's almost all cosmetic, with the exception that the lining part of the door got pried off a bit, and the last part of a wheel well cover got shredded pretty good. Just say you don't notice it until you stare at it. So, it'll be fixed after the house closes.

Oops. I'm just glad he's realized that car do get dinged up. Never on purpose.

The tale of 4 Christmases

The "upside" to Leena having divorced parents (as well as Jeff), is all the christmases that come with it! We will have had 4 this year! First christmas was packing up my 2 babies, filling up the mazda to the brim with coats, hats, gloves, snow shoes, beanies, and 6 days worth of clothes and toilitries. And making the what used to be 8 hour drive, to Idaho. jerome, specifically. Leena did FABULOUS! She was such a sweetheart through it all. We had to stop obviously for gas and lunch, and she just watched movies and slept the whole way. Just asked ONE time how long we'd been travelling for, such a good girl! We met up with Jeff's cousins Lauren and her sister, Meagan in Boise. Then, for some reason, I forgot how FAR we were from our actual destination. In short, it was about, well a little less than 2 hours from Boise. Anyway, we left a little late because the passes were advising snow, and we needed chains for our car, and after 30 stores of calling around, no one, literally, on this side, had any. (I'll go into that story later) I think we left at 9:30, and got into Jerome (with meeting up with the cousins for an hour or so) around 10:30. Landon slept the whole time, almost. which, we forgot would come to haunt us. He was wide awake until about 2am. So, needless to say, it was a long trek, and we were tired. We stayed at Jeff's mom house. We hung out with Jeffs sister, Christy, and her cute little family (she has 5 kids, oldest is 12, youngest is 3) for a while, and laid low. Til Christmas eve. On Christmas eve, everyone got together for church, and then met at grandma and grandpa Daniels house. Which, was nice to see all the names with the face I've yet to match. We had a good time, and good dinner with family. The kids got an abundance of things. Some, are still in Idaho. We then went home and went to bed. The next day was Christmas! Forecasters had said it was going to snow, and I was upset that I was going to miss the white christmas in Seattle. Would've been my frist there! But! It snowed a bunch in Jerome, making it a white christmas anyway. We woke Leena up to her first white christmas. She was so excited, had breakfast and waited for Jeffs sister to come over with all the kids to have christmas with them. We had a good time and Leena enjoys all her presents Jeff and I got her. We have a good share of stuff now! (which were 3 things cause everyone just loves buying for her) We then bid then packed up the cars again, and drove teh long drive out to Gooding, where Aunt Phyllis lives. We then had Christmas dinner and opened up many presents, while Leena played her brains out with her new cousins, Elisha and Jonah. (They're 5 and 6) While we were at Aunt Phyll's house, I got a call from my parents..with my little brother cody on the line!!! I was so mad that I was going to miss my little brothers one call home on christmas while they're on their mission. but, my mom got the # to call them back at, and 3 way called me in! Thanks mommy!! He's doing great, and seems happy. He's done alot of good out there, and i'm sure touched many people in many ways. Cody had a huge heart, he always has. I'm sure he's blessed people. Cody knows he's in the right place, doing what he's supposed to. I'm so proud of him!! Mom did the same with Seth, 3 way called me in. His spanish is amazing! He rambleed off a few things to me, and I was like "I have NO idea what you said, but it sounds pretty darn authentic!" he said he hates the bostonian accents, you can't understand what they're saying. He also said, the lady next door, April, (who you can't even tell is a woman if it wasn't for her name) is a hoot. If she ever needs help with anything, she hits up those missionaries next door! He says, that she introduces them as her husbands, hahaha. Hee loves the people he runs into, and teaches. He is a minority in Boston. He also said it's alot of Dominicans, Venezuelans, and Uruguay cultures. which means it's pretty darn diverse out there. He has been snowed in for 3 days, and he and his new companion, were pretty bored of playing the same games over and over. Seth is a good guy, he's learning so much, I'm proud of him as well. Both of my missionary brother are proud uncles. Seth said he told some of the ward memeber that "I had my first nephew!", they do come forma family of alot of girls! I put Leena and Jeff on for both brothers, I can't wait til they're home! The next day, the 26th, was go home day. The night prior, as Jeff was tucking Leena in, she was saying her prayers, and started to cry. He tucked her in anyway, no questions asked to her. So, when he came out and told me she'd started to cry, I was a little alarmed. Leena can be an emotionally sensitive girl, so I wanted to know what was wrong, so I could console her properly. I go in there and ask why she was in tears, she looked at me and said "I don't wanna go home momma..." awww. This was the girl that didn't want to go at first, and we really had to tell her how much fun she was going to have, to get her to go. It was sad to see her cry, but glad at the same time taht she'd had that much fun, and learned to really like all of her new cousins, so fast. I told her we'd come back, and she'd see them again. That seemed to console her a little, but not fully. She was just so upset about leaving, I told her to take deep breaths and to close her eyes and she'd fall asleep. Within 5 minutes, she was out. We left at 8:40. It wasn't a bad drive really, til we hit WA. Of course, we'd been hit by 2 storms, the biggest since 1953, with 75mph winds and 15" of snow in places (IE my parents house!) We hit the pass, and it was dumping snow, and the speed limit was docked from 70mph, to 35. Crap. We lost momentum and had to pull over and put our cables on. We had them on for all of 2 miles, crawling at 20mph. Because our car is labeled a "sports car", it can't go regular speed with chains on. Anyway, after the sheer hell through Snoqualmie Pass, we FINALLY made it to my parents house, which had 14+ inches of snow!! I've NEVER seen it that much at their house! That was 8 more inches than what we had in Idaho! We dropped off Leena, and jetted to seattle (only after getting stuck in my parents driveway of course, cause of snow) and caught teh ferry, and after a long day, got home at 11pm. We got stuck outside of our house, adn said screw it. Took what we needed, adn walked the 7 houses home, with baby in hand. We woke up to a new dent in the car. Which, we don't know how it got there, but we think a snow plow maybe because when we left the car, they plowed around it. We have one more christmas left. My older sister and my 5 year old niece, Maleah, will be flying in on Tuesday, so excited! I haven't seen those 2 in about 3 years. I've missed them! So, we're having another christmas with them!

So much!

I think I have a couple things to blog about this time around!

I'll start off with Christmas.

I was rather pleased to see that ABC aired Charlie Browns Christmas. I think it gives us a reminder that christmas is mainly about Christ. Easy to forget with all the commercialism. And, I was very happy that they did air it, frankly, I'm sick of the "Merry Christmas Bans" because it's not politically correct. I watched a Jeff Dunham Christmas special on Comedy Central, and his puppet character Walter, was talking about that very thing. He literally said "ya know, I've been wanting to say this for a couple years now, screw you, It's Merry Christmas!". Thank you! Someone else said it besides me! Needless to say, the crowd cheered wildly. If you get offended by that, wow. You're going to have it hard on all holidays. I think people should be able to say what they want to wish someone a good holiday. That's all they're saying, is have fun. Just with fancy words.
Anyway, Merry Christmas!!

For Christmas this year, we're making the trek to Boise, ID. Jeff's home area. Well, he's from a tiny town called Jerome. Where it's full of stinker stations (which oddly enough, DO stink) and hills and cattle. Yup, small town america. He's so excited. I'm dreading the drive. It's supposed be be snowing pretty much across the WHOLE state of Washington come this Saturday, when we're due to leave.

However, He's almost giddy to see his family. He and I drove there for Thanksgiving last year. Only to have Jeff be a total mute on the 8-9 hour drive there because he got mono, his throat was in so much pain, he couldn't talk. (Didn't get it from me!) Needless to say, I DJ'd with the ipod the whole time. Little conversing took place that trip. So, it'll be fun to have little Landon and big little Leena with us this time. Not many have seen Landon from his dad's side, so Jeff is uber pumped to show him off.

I will say this, that drive is the most BORING drive! Anyone who's driven through Oregon, Idaho and Washington, knows what I'm talking about. Once you get on I-90, take 3 sleeping pills til you arrive cause there is nothing to see. All I can say is, I'm glad we spent the money for a DVD system for the car. I may have to watch PS. I love you when the kids are asleep.


House Hunting!
Our sweet agent, Natalya, has spent alot of time trying to find us a good home. We finally found one! We went to her office 2 days ago to do the offer, as she pulled up the listing...it then said "Subject to inspection". NOOOO! Someone beat us to it! I was totally bummed. It was a nice home in the small city of Spanaway. But, I guess that's an indication that it possibly may not have worked out. So, we're out looking again. You'd be surprised how many homes are in foreclosure. Seems like the half of what we've seen, were significantly priced lower, because of that. Which, we did see some OK ones, but I will be honest, fixing someones anger issue cause they lost their home, doesn't sound appealing. (some had punched holes in walls, doors, tried to 'injure' the house per se as they moved out) I originally didn't even want a foreclosed home, it just sounded like bad news to me. But, now that our time limit is coming up very fast on when to buy one, I don't have a choice but to include them now. Downfall is, if we make an offer on a bank owned property, it can take up to 2 months to get a response. We don't have that kind of time. We'll see! We're scouring the internet and looking everywhere. Ugh!

Lastly, I dont' know how many people have seen this, but WOW!

So long Stennis...

It's official! We have less than a month and a half, then Jeff is OFF the Stennis! (aka USS John C. Stennis) They leave for another 7-8 month long deployment mid January. Which, Jeff had said if he was single still, he wouldn't mind going on. I think they're touring asia this time around. He toured the persian gulf last deployment. Which was Jan 2007-Aug of the same year.

I'm not looking forward to the 5 weeks of him being gone in Pensacola, but it's better than a deployment! For all of you "civilian wives", be happy youre husband doesn't have the crazy schedule Jeff does. Don't take that for granted! Jeff is working a 24 hour shift, every other day. So, pretty much the morning he gets off work, he goes back at 6am the next day. Seriously, be happy your husband or partner is around!

The good thing is, Jeff will be working 9-5, come April when he's actually in the recruting office in Tacoma. Yay! A normal work schedule!

Which, means...we get to move..YAY! Yeah, totally kidding. I hate moving! I've moved like 4 times in less than 4 years! I'm praying this is the last time we have to move for at least a couple of years!

We've been house hunting the past week or 2. We actually went ahead and did all of the mortgage things first, and got pre-approved and all that, so we'd be considered serious buyers, because we are. And, with how the eceonomy is lately, that's a good idea, to show that you're stable and not going to go into foreclosure and all of that.

Props to our realtor, she's been very patient and has a good grasp on what we're looking for. I will say this, out of the 10 hours we've probably spent with her, and looking at houses and commuting places, I've seen ONE house that I like. Some were OK, and that's not bad. I"m just insanely picky, and if one thing is too small, it's instantly voided out. Maybe Jeff will cave and get the one that I did really love :)

We pretty much have 45 days to get a house, and have it close...NO stress at all! That way we can move out of here, stop paying for the place we're in, and get into the house before Jeff leaves around the 21st of next month. Blah! Oh well, stressful, but I'm hoping it'll be worth while!

6 weeks

It's been 6 weeks I had Landon, come Wednesday. I still get the "You just had a baby, you look great!" Whew, all that hard work of not working out, paid off! Hehe. I will work out, just after the doctor clears me to.

Overall, I think the recovery is definately alot longer, but I feel good! Finally! If anyone has had a c-section, you'll have the numbness. I still can't feel much on my abdomen, but I'm hoping it'll go away by the time he's one.

Landon is cute as can be. We just love him to bits! He's fitting some of his 0-3 clothes, and that makes me sad. He's already my little growing boy. Oh well, they do that! He's trying SOOO hard to talk, he's so close to smiling. He's flashed me a little one or two, but nothing long enough to get a camera and take a picture of.

I LOVE having Jeff home. He's good about getting up in the night with Landon. I will say this though, he has to get up early to go to work, and if I don't get enough sleep, I don't function properly and it's hard for me to do anything. So, we've run into the "no, you get up with him this time" a couple times. But, either way, Landon was well taken care of by a very groggy parent. He's finally on a schedule now.

Anyone answer me this. I just think this is weird. Anytime we give him his bottle at night time, at my parents house, and put him to sleep in his carseat, he sleeps for 5 hours, un-interrupted. (We put some rice cereal in his bottle because he was waking up once an hour) Yet, we do the SAME thing here at home, just put him in his crib instead, and he gets up every 2-3 hours. Is that weird? Or is he just a fan of sleeping in his car seat? I'm still lost as to why the big difference in sleep. I want him to sleep 5 hours at once at home!

Anyway, here are some random pictures from Fam Day with my family, and some of Jeff and the kids.



Jeff and Leena at my parents


Jeff giving Landon a bath, he didn't cry!



Jeff and Landon looking at the lights. Landon LOVES looking at them! It's so cute!


Landon admiring all the pretty colors form his bouncy.


Thanksgiving at my parents. A typical scene at their house. My mom, Jeff, Hillary and Isabelle. Isabelle lost her husband to liver cancer 2-3 years ago, on christmas day. She's been my moms buddy and visiting teacher for years now.


Leena and Papa Charles cuddled up


Me and Leena Beena!


We had a little mini christmas tree left over from my divorce with Leenas dad. (he hated Christmas, that was the biggest tree I was allowed to have, SAD!) so we put lights on it, and stuck it in Landons room. And funny enough, I was on the phone with my sister, Hillary.