Day 30!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is a big day! Hadley is 6 months old (since theres no Nov 31) and we are officially 1 month down!Woo hoo!!!!!!  Time flies...kinda...

We had to celebrate. J insisted on helping mommy stock the fridge.

He tells some pretty funny bedtime stories. Tonight, he read to us about the big, giant, grumpy lizard. 

 

Not sure how this got out of order... but dang she's cute!

Wish I had time to write more, but of course Stuarts personal internet is down again. He's on the government computer right now, so we can chat through gmail. Really wish I could see his face... but Ill take what I can get. More tomorrow!

Stuarts Paris Adventure

Stuart decided pictures speak more than his words.... here are just a few that he took!

Day 29

Stuart made it back to Bagram. He is exhausted, but staying up so he can mail my gift in the am. How sweet. We didn't talk long because duty calls.  Hadley has been a little fussy and very spitty today and Jackson is just being Jackson and fighting bed. Throw into that mix that our hot water ran out (just when J was in the tub and Hadley needed her night time bottle) and my call pager was going off. Awesome. Just awesome. 

The rest of todays blog will be pictures. Stuart has finally sent me his updated journal so I promise to post that either later tonight or tomorrow. 

Day 28 - Happy Thanksgiving

It may not be Paris, but fun times happen in the Bertsch house every day....

Chocolate chip cookies for breakfast

Hadley found the remote. "Oh no!" exclaims Jackson "the tv went black!"

"Mommy, I need to curl my eyes"

"and use that brush"

 This was right after she ate most of the books

 So hard to get good pics of both of them, but I must say the next one is pretty darn cute!

 Of course mommy forgot something at Kroger. Nothing like a little holiday run to the store. Stickers for J =) 

They will always find a way to make laundry fun! She had just woken from her nap, so her face is a little red from sleeping on her lovie!

 Fun with nana

 Painting a picture for daddy

Goofing off with frosty the snowman...

Good ole play doh fun

Counting my blessings today. Thankful for so many things, including the love and support I have received thus far. Hard to believe its almost been a month.  You know, we're so used to working on the holidays that it doesn't even seem that weird that Stu is gone.  Sarcasm aside, I truly am glad that he was able to enjoy Paris. I didn't hear anything about his trip other than he visited Hermes (or says he did...) Hopefully once he is back in Bagram the internet will be better (weird, I know).

Jackson is soooo excited for his cousin Rylie to come! I told him when he woke up she would be in his bed!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Day 27

Stuart is spending Thanksgiving in Paris. His mission went well and apparently he got to stay longer in Germany than expected. They took a train to France and explored a little of Germany on the way. Today they saw the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow - The Louvre, Arch de Triumph and who knows what else. I am jealous, but, been there - done that. I am thankful that he gets to enjoy himself since he can't be here with his family - where I know he'd rather be.

I worked today. Spent lunch break at Target. Ran into Tim Franxman there.  He was one of my upper levels on wards during my second year of residency. He recently moved back after finishing Allergy and Immunology fellowship and just found out he is board certified. So excited for him. Its just nice to see familiar faces in this very unfamiliar town. On the way home my low tire pressure lights came on, again.  I froze my tail off putting air in the tires. Guess its time to have them checked. Pretty sure we're over due for an oil change too. Guess thats what I'll be doing after work on Friday. Fun times.  Don't you wish you were me.

Here are the pics from dinner. Jackson can flip his switch in no time. He spent the majority of dinner in time out. Stuart called right as we were finishing up so I couldn't talk long. Sigh. I guess since he's actually on a "normal" schedule he really did need to go to bed. Better luck tomorrow, when he heads back to Germany.

(Toni, if you're reading this- my camera is still on the flower... I guess this is what you mean with fading stuff out in the background... kinda like how the tree looks!) 

We will be having a lazy Thanksgiving tomorrow. My sister is heading here late tomorrow with Rylie so we will be eating on Friday when I get home from work. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! I am thankful for each of you reading this...

Day 26

Stuart is on mission #3.  I found out via email this morning that he would be heading out today. Around 7am he was able to text and let me know he would be leaving soon and that it would be a short mission - one where they would fly to Germany (8 hrs) unload/reload and fly back. Whew!  And he only slept about 4 hours last night. He said he would text me before he left... and the last I heard was that he was heading to the hospital... so maybe that was the text - who knows. Either way, he should be there by now and as always - I am worried that I haven't heard anything. The patient had a STEMI (which is a fancy way to describe the type of heart attack for all you non medical peeps). 

I will update when I know more. I think he was excited for the mission because he is getting bored. Yesterday he was researching cars for us to buy. Apparently he can get a pretty sweet deal over there, even with shipping costs. Hopefully I can do the test driving and we can pick out a car =)  He has it narrowed down to the Ford Explorer or Dodge Durango.

We didn't do much around here today. We showed mom the Gap clearance store, of course Hadley wasn't a fan. We tried to visit a few more stores and it was pretty much a disaster, as per usual.  We decided to try out Chick Fil A for lunch.  Pretty sure if a fire marshall came in they'd be in deep trouble. Mom took J to play in the playground until she saw green snot draining from every orifice from one of the kiddos. J man loves it, but man are they filthy.  I fed  Hadley some bananas because she wouldn't take her bottle. Not sure who was wearing more bananas, her or me? You know, I'm actually getting used to people staring at me now. I just laugh and think to myself - you have no idea.  

Its beginning to look like Christmas around here.... especially with more snow!

Day 25

Manic Monday. 

The kids stayed on central time zone and slept until 7 and 745, amen! Hadley did wake up once in the middle of the night but it was still nice to be able to "sleep in". It kinda through our day off a little, but we still managed to do 2 of my least favorite things, laundry and Kroger. Mom said we ran a marathon in Kroger, ha. We don't mess around... its in and out - ready, set, go! 

Hadley enjoyed playing a little piano this morning before Jackson woke up. 

 Both are thankful to have Nana.

 Hadley tried puffs today. She wasn't sure what to think...

This morning I helped out my neighbor Jody. He and Regina do so much for me, so it was nice to be able to return the favor =)  He got glass in his foot and luckily I was able to easily remove it. Easy for me anyway, not so sure about him... definitely used to having lidocaine when Im digging around in kids foots.  I realized afterwards that I really enjoy that aspect of medicine, and I actually do miss my old job. 

Stus internet is down again.  Yesterday, he sent me a picture of this quilt he received. His team got a bunch from some people in Arkansas and he was so thankful! God bless the people that made and sent those quilts!

We sent Stu another package today. He still won't tell me anything that he needs or wants. His address zip code changed again... but no worries he will get mail at either address.  His current address is

Stuart Bertsch

455 EAES

APO/AE 09352

I guess I should get around to finishing my tree...