New Blog

Well since everyone keeps asking me about the "stress", I will just tell you. Me and Kevin are going through the big D and I don't mean Dallas. It's a mutual decision between us. Anyway, so with that said, I am starting a new blog and I may make it private, still trying to decide because I HATE private blogs. Anyway, the blog address is http://gityoblogon.blogspot.com. If you will email me at
bobbybop at gmail dot com and let me know if you still want to read about my ever so exciting life please do so I can add you. I am slowly getting everyone transferred from this blog to the next.
I will keep this one as a back up and post things on how Kevin is doing from time to time while he is gone for Military.
Thanks everyone.

stress...

So I have a lot of stress going on in my life. Some of you may know, others may not. Well I am not going to blab all about it on the internet. Lets just say, there is major stress. So with my new found stress I have been dropping the L.B.'s like MAD! I mean 22 in a month... not too shabby. I also have found a new stress reliever. Working out! Who'da thunk it? I have been working out twice a day... that's right, TWICE! Major stress reliever. And when you have PINK blaring on your ipod... even better. So I decided that I wasn't going to take baby steps into the whole working out thing. I jumped in head first. The first night I walked/ran 2.6 miles. That's the most I have done in 2 months. The following morning I walked again for 1.3 miles (had to cut it short because Ashlyn was ready to get out of the stroller). Then that night I biked 4.2 miles... and could've gone more. I had a burst of energy. THEN this morning I got up and went again for 4.2 miles. I felt like a champ. I am sure that sometime it will kick in and I will be sore, but right now I feel great.
Anyway, I don't recommend this stress to anyone. I do say that it is a great diet though. But it is what it is...

It came... whether I wanted it to or not

Well last Sunday was Ashlyn's 1st birthday. It was so much fun. I can't believe where the year has gone. She is at such a fun stage and has quite the little personality. We just had our families together for a bbq/party. It wasn't too hot of a day and grandma don-don and grandpa dickie's backyard is shaded so it made it that much nicer.
For her birthday we gave Ashlyn her new forward facing carseat and she loves it! What a whole new world there is when you don't have to look at a seat. We also bought her a cute cute dress from Andrea Bell (go to bella-boutique.blogspot.com) and put in your order today. She looked so cute in it. I will get pictures posted soon of it. And we are also going to go have her ears pierced. She has been so sick with a UTI and 103 fever for a week and didn't think she needed to be tortured any more.
Anyway, I look forward to the next year with Ash, and all the ones after that. She is the best baby ever. We love her so much. Happy Birthay ROO!

**new changes to blog coming soon, stay posted**

My turn

Well in about 7 hours from now I will be having someone slit my wrist. Literally. And then they will also slit into my palm. And then when it is all over and done with I will be home snoozing away until it's time to go to Transformers for FREE!!! WOOT WOOT! It should be pretty amazing while I am drugged. Hopefully I don't sleep through the entire thing. Wish me luck!

It's over

My dad's surgeon ended up being too sick to perform the surgery Tuesday morning, which the news came AFTER he had already been doped up. So he went this morning at 6:00, was taken back and 8:15 and surgery was finished around 11:30. The doctor said everything went really well. Now he has to stay overnight in the hospital and comes home tomorrow. Hopefully this will fix my dad's back problems.
Next up... MY surgery! No I am not getting anything bigger or anything sucked out of me, that will be the next surgeries (hopefully). Anyone want to take a shift with Ashlyn since I won't be able to take care of her for at least a week??

SO...

My dad is having some back surgery in the morning. I ask you all to keep him in your prayers. He means THE WORLD to me. I know nothing will go wrong with the surgery because if it did, I am not sure how I would live without him. It's sort of a big surgery so I just ask you to keep him in your thoughts (even if you don't know him). I will post about his surgery later.

quote of the day...

"It only hurts if its true" That means when someone accuses you of something and you get defensive and it probably hurts, then its probably true. When someone is trying to help you and calls you out on something and it hurts you and you think about it so much well its probably true about yourself. Deal with it and accept it.

Forgiveness....

Have you ever had one of those days that didn't start off all to well, and then something else happens and you just EXPLODE? I am sure that we all have and you are lying to yourself if you haven't.
Well mine was about 2 months ago. I am not going to get into it because it is between me and a great friend. If you don't know the story, you never will. I will just say that I was having a bad day (or 2 or 3) and when this thing happened I SNAPPED! Boy did I snap. At the time I was so wrapped up in madness that I didn't even think of the future between the 2 of us. Since then, I will not say I have consumed all my time by thinking of what I had said, but certain things will trigger my memory of what use to be and I tear up. I was watching the funniest movie, and there I was sitting crying throughout the entire thing while being reminded of what I had done to this person.
The day after this happened I received an email from someone who had not emailed me in forever. When I read the headline, I teared up again. Then I watched the video... bring out the water works. Good thing it was only me and Ashlyn around and she didn't know what the crap mom was doing.
The reason that I blog about this subject now, is because I have alot of emotions going on in my head right now, and the first person that I would usually go complain to, I can't.
As many of you know, I have been having mixed emotions about our big move. But the thing that I don't want is to move and still have this between us. I don't even know if this person reads my blog, but if they do... then they do. I just hope all of you can get something out of this video. If it makes you cry, then good. If you have seen it before, watch it again.

xoxoxo
Bobby

T minus 60 days....

Ashlyn with her new Horsey




... until Ashlyn turns 1! I can't believe it. Where has the time gone? She is at such a fun age. She mimicks everything we do. She is a jabber box too. She has her "tiny voice" and her "outside voice". She will yell at you if you aren't paying attention to her and the next minute she will be sitting talking to her doll or something in her tiny voice. She also LOVES to be outside. She just sits and looks at everything. She loves it. She also loves to watch her "signing time" videos. She doesn't move when they are on. And I am proud to say that she can sign "dog", and when you ask her what a doggie says she will tell you. It's so cute. Just tonight we were shopping at Albertsons and she was looking at her baby animal book and she started saying "kitty kitty", in her tiny voice. TOO CUTE! She still has no interest in crawling, she loves to lay on her belly, but doesn't want to crawl. She is bound to walk before crawling. We also bought her a horse jumper and she loves it. I will try to post the video on here.

On to another topic, we have a busy week ahead of us. This Friday, Kevin's step brother Hakan graduates in Cedar, then on Monday we spend Memorial Day in Morgan, Tuesday Kevin's sister Cassie and foster sister Elena graduate from Fremont and Thursday Tristan gets home from his mission!!! We can't wait!!! I will have to take some pics of what we are going to wear to the airport when he arrives. Then Saturday we are going to RMR with my brother Ryan and his family and then Sunday is Tristan's first welcome home. What a busy week!!!




4 generations on Mother's Day: Grandma Don-Don (who Ashlyn is named after), Me, Ashlyn and Grama Nae

It's official!! I'm a military wife!

Friday morning Kevin had to be in Bountiful around 5:15 to head to Salt Lake with SFC Keegan to finish up some paperwork and have his security clearance interview. I left our house around 8, headed to Draper to watch him be sworn in. Well SFC Keegan text me around 9:30 and said that he still wasn't finished yet. So off to IKEA (for the second time this week, note to everyone, DO NOT attempt IKEA with yourself and a 9 1/2 month old who is teething and doesn't want to be in a stroller). Anyway, so I am shopping my little heart away when they call and say to head on over to the National Guard headquarters. So we get there and we walk into this building that is very deceiving from the outside. If you don't know the building I am talking about it is on the East side of the Freeway just before Bangerter with the jet on a stick in front.
Anyway, so we go in and they take Kevin down to get his uniform and then back down to the offices.
So we go in and talk about his contract and things and then they take us back out into the lobby and that is where they swear you in. I had mixed emotions while they were doing this, but the end result was PROUD! It does my heart good to see Kevin in his uniform.
After that we went back into the room to finish some paperwork and in walks Mike... the reason for all of this... sorry you had to miss the swearing in Mike! Anyway, then SFC Keegan took us all to lunch and we talked for a while longer about the upcoming events which are....

Kevin leaves to Boot Camp on Sept 22nd. He actually leaves the 21st to stay overnight in SLC and then leaves the next day. He will be in Ft Jackson, South Carolina for 10 weeks. Then he will head to either Ft Huachuca, AZ for 17 weeks to learn his MOS (Human Intelligence Collector) or Monterrey, CA for 63 weeks to learn his language (which is Arabic). So we will be gone for a while. Me and Ash don't get to go to South Carolina with him, until he graduates, but we will be in AZ and Cali with him. I am so excited to move but at the same time it will kill me to leave OUR families and friends. In case you are wondering about driving out to visit us, both AZ and CA are 13 hours from my house.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who is supporting us in this adventure. We are excited to see where this will take us. I am excited to have the benefits and hopefully be able to have the so needed surgery on my hands! It has been long overdue.

Thanks again to Runs Fast (Mike) & Ari, about talking to us about this. I hope our bonus for you will come in handy for that little princess you are waiting for. And if you get Abeni while we are gone, you WILL come and bring her to visit us!

And thanks to Holy Smoke in Layton, where all of this started... and your great food!

can I get a WOOT WOOT

Dear ROBYN :

Thank you for your recent application for the Big Game Drawing. Your results are:

Appl # Hunt # Result
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
738*** *** GENERAL BUCK SUCCESSFUL for hunt 995 NORTHERN


I AM FINALLY GOING HUNTING!!!!!!! I have had my blue card for almost 5 years, but something has always come up and I haven't been able to go. Well this year I will either be living in Cali or Arizona but will fly home to go, nothing can stop me this time! I am so excited! Leave me a comment of your hunting excursions through a girl's point of view. It's always been just the guys that go and us girl's (plus Kestin, Wyatt & Tyson)who all end up at the Olive Garden while they are gone. Well I will gladly miss that this year. WOOT WOOT!!!!

ROO is 9 months!

Ashlyn at the Treehouse

Ashlyn on the scooter on Easter with Uncle Bud (you can't tell but she is really sick)


Where does the time go? She is already 9 months! She has been such a sick little girl (again) for the last couple of weeks. We took her to the doctor last Friday and she has an ear infection, sore throat, she's been throwing up and her gums are extremely swollen. I wish those darn teeth would just pop through already. She has been teething for about 4 months now... AARGH!

She is at such a fun age. She is the happiest baby, even while sick. She finally shows some interest in crawling. She gets on her hands and knees and scoots backwards. She goes all over the floor that way and I just sit and laugh it is too cute. She also will rock back and forth so I am sure in the next little bit she will be crawling the right way. She also loves to stand. Whenever she is near the computer she stares at it looking for pictures of herself. (They are our screensaver, obviously) She also loves to watch Signing Time and doesn't take her eyes off it. She even dances to it. She loves pattycake and sings along with you. If you aren't paying attention to her she fake coughs or amkes an eh sound to get you to look at her. She also likes to scare the dogs... they are afraid of her. She laughs so hard.

Ash is so fun. I love being a mom. Kevin loves being a dad. It's going to be hard for Kevin to be away from her for 10 weeks, and it's going to be hard to take her away from our families after that for however long we are gone. (we hopefully will know by this time next week)

Thank you to everyone who is supporting us in this adventure in our lives. I know it's what we are suppose to be doing right now, even if I am having a hard time coming to terms with being a Military Wife. I am going to miss all my friends, and hopefully you will all continue to stalk me as I will continue to stalk all of you (except for those who have deleted me... you know who you are)

Happy Birthday Ash!

Good News/ Bad News

So this is going to be a blog about the events in our lives right now.

GOOD NEWS: Ashlyn's eye doctor appointment went REALLY well. The doctor saw no need for glasses as of right now.
BAD NEWS: Because of our family history with eyesight, she has to keep going back.

GOOD NEWS: Elder Cox (Kevin's younger brother Tristan) gets home in 49 days!!!
BAD NEWS: Kevin might not be here for the event.

GOOD NEWS: Kevin is taking the ASVAB test on Tuesday. (When he took it in High School he passed with flying colors and had recruiters knocking on his door)
BAD NEWS: High School was over 12 years ago.

GOOD NEWS: If he passes the ASVAB, he joins the National Guard. :)
BAD NEWS: If he passes the ASVAB, he joins the National Guard. :(

GOOD NEWS: If he scores good on the ASVAB, he can choose pretty much whatever job he wants.
BAD NEWS: If he doesn't get a good score, they tell him what job he can have.

GOOD NEWS: Basic training is ONLY 10 weeks long.
BAD NEWS: He has to leave me and Ashlyn for 10 weeks.

GOOD NEWS: After basic training he will go to school to learn a career.
BAD NEWS: If his school is over 8 weeks (which it most likely will be) we will be moving away with him.

GOOD NEWS: While Kevin is gone I get a housing and food allowance.
BAD NEWS: I don't want to move somewhere and live alone while he is gone.

GOOD NEWS: We get 100% medical and dental coverage!!
BAD NEWS: I have to choose new doctors on base.

GOOD NEWS: He most likely won't have to go to Iraq!!
BAD NEWS: He could be deployed somewhere else.

GOOD NEWS: If he passes the language test, he can go to school to learn a language!
BAD NEWS: We will be living away much longer.

GOOD NEWS: Everyone LOVES a man in uniform.
BAD NEWS: It's not the uniform I was hoping for.

GOOD NEWS: We have prayed our little hearts out that this is the right decision.
BAD NEWS: We have to leave our families while we embark on this adventure.

IN THE ARMY NATIONAL GUARD... YOU CAN!

Good song

So I heard this song on the ACM's tonight and I had tears in my eyes almost the entire time. Mainly because of the upcoming event that is going to happen in me and Kevin's life. I am scared, nervous, excited and also know this is the best for our family right now. I will explain more after we meet with someone on Tuesday. ENJOY!!

Ash's eye

So tomorrow we take Ashlyn down to Primary Children's to meet with Dr Dries, an opthalmologist. I am SO nervous. Her left eye is lazy and our Pediatrician said "that's not a good thing". Bad eye sight runs in our families. I don't want to have to worry about glasses for Ashlyn at such a young age (if they even do that) nor do I want to think of surgery. I mean she is only 8 1/2 months old for pete's sake. ARGH! Wish us luck! And we love prayers too!
p.s. if you look at some of her pictures you can see it... it is so sad cause she is so dang cute.

RANDOM thought for the day

I got this off a friends blog...



Stop, drop and roll does not work in Hell.


and I thought it was great. Be prepared for more random daily thoughts from me.

A day late...

So yesterday was completely hectic and I didn't get to make a post for Ashlyn's 8 month birthday. So here it is... don't you just love her first piggy tails? Yes, I know... she is TOTALLY adorable.

The day my life changed forever

So 17 years ago today, my life changed forever. I was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes, or type I diabetes. Stupid Disease. I was 12 years old and had no idea what that meant. Here's the story:
In November of 1991 my Grandma Creager was hospitalized. I use to spend EVERY night there with my mom. My mom started noticing how often I was going to the bathroom and that I was extremely thirsty. I also had the flu pretty severe and dropped quite a bit of weight, which no 6th grader needed to lose.
So on Friday March 13th, 1992 my brother picked me up from school and told me that my Grandma had died. I was so sad. My dad's sister and her family flew in for the funeral. On Monday March 16th, I had a doctor's appointment up at Herfordshire with Dr. Wood.
So we get there and we are back in the room and my mom asks him to check my blood sugar. OUCH! not only did they do it once, but they did it twice! It took a few minutes to get the results back but when he came into the room, I knew that something was wrong. He said "You have juvenile diabetes". I was 12, and never heard about that before. My grandma who had just died had it, and I was scared to death! He said that my blood sugars were at 625, not good, and that I needed to get up to the hospital A.S.A.P. So me, mom and dad all left the office, all crying, and drove over to my Grandma's house where everyone was cleaning. We walked in, tear stricken faces, and told them what was going on. My Uncle Cliff was there and he helped my dad give me a blessing. So we head home, I shower, get some things packed... like my favorite barbie and head to the hospital. Still terrified.
We arrive at the St Ben's (Ogden Regional) Monday night and got me all checked in. They checked my blood sugars again and I was still scary high. My mom spent the night with me and the next morning they had me giving myself shots. That first one was a kicker, and I did it in my leg. So scared.
Anyway, fast forward until now and I have been all over the board. I have had the highest blood sugars and been hospitalized. I have had the lowest blood sugars, passed out while driving and wrecked my jeep. I have been severely depressed, even suicidal. And I have been the happiest in my life. I have been crippled as an old lady with neuropathy where I couldn't walk and rode in a wheelchair most places.
I wouldn't change what I have been through with diabetes. I think it has made me stronger and have more sympathy for those with terminal illnesses. I could have a disease much worse than diabetes, so I am thankful that this is all I have. I really want to teach others about this disease. I want to get my R.N. so that I can go on to be a diabetic educator. I understand what others are going through. Lots of people I know that are diabetics have either been so tight with their regimen that they don't know how it is to be "out of control". I was told NEVER to try and get pregnant because they said neither me or the baby would make it through the delivery. Well guess what, I started really caring for myself and I had a very healthy baby. And I plan to have another, but won't push myself beyond 2.
This post is mainly for me. I like to talk about this disease that I use to hide from everyone. I met a little girl the other night that had this little pouch on her pocket and I saw some tubing. I went over and asked her if she had an insulin pump. She said yes and so I showed her mine. She was so excited. She said "mom look! She has one too!" She was only about 6 and had been diagnosed at the age of 4. I told her that only special people got to wear these. We are special, and she made my night.

FIRST family pictures

Stay tuned...

... new ever so adorable pictures of Ashlyn coming soon. I know you can't wait!