Sitting in our hotel room

So they have packed us in paper and are moving us away. Our packers were so efficient that they had my upstairs packed before I had our suitcases packed! I was going crazy on Thursday!!! Now we are sitting in our hotel room watching the Democratic debates and trying to cut through the crap to figure out where they stand on the issues. It is a trying time for me. I hate moving. And trying to keep our 4 month old entertained with no bouncy chairs and few toys is quite frustrating. Plus, I have not been sleeping very well so I am completely exhausted. James is having a great time. He and our friend Lt. Read have gone golfing this morning. What am I doing? Entertaining our son. I am going to have to venture out for food soon. At least we had a very sweet little boy and he is usually pretty calm. I am so excited for our cousins, the Duckworths. They are getting closer and closer to being able to bring their little girl. Allie, home from Guatemala. They are such great people! I am rambling in this blog, so I apologize. My thoughts are very scattered. My mom confided in me that they are thinking of leaving their church. It is becoming more and more like a business. Trying for mass, more secular appeal to try and bring in more people, yet the whole time starting to lose the members that they had. I can appreciate wanting to bring in more people, just don't lose sight of God. God is not a fad, He is a constant. Don't try and make Him cool, He is cool. You cannot entice people to follow God. People have to be lead. They have to see by example the good that God does. So instead of focusing on gimmicks to attract people, we should be doing more good works to spread His word. It just frustrates me when churches start moving away from focusing on God. Well, my son is being needy again. Time to eat.

Matthew and Jacob

I said that I would post some new pictures of Matthew and here they are.






This is Matty with his faux hawk hairdo. He still doesn't have a ton of hair so it is kind of small.




Matty playing in his new exersaucer. Look, he can even turn the pages!!!




Matty pressing the buttons and making it light up and sing.

Matty sucking his thumb. He has really just started doing this. Isn't it adorable?!

This morning my son did the cutest thing. I laid him down on my side of the bed next to his dad so I could get dressed. James really wasn't awake yet and Matty started kicking his leg into daddy's leg and looking at him like "Come on, get up and play!" It was so cute. I wish that I had gotten it on camera. Everyone asks me where Matthew's name comes from. So I tell them that the Matthew is from his father. It is James's middle name. And the Thomas comes from my baby cousin Jacob. It was his middle name. It was my way of honoring the little boy who was one of the first to steal a piece of my heart. It is hard for me to talk about Jacob without getting choked up. For those of you who do not know, Jacob is one of a set of triplets. And he was the only one to be diagnosed with cancer. There isn't anyone who met Jacob who didn't think that he was special. Like my son, he could light up your day with one of his beautiful big smiles. I write this as a way to get my grief out. I have held onto it for such a long time. Heather has posted so many beautiful memories and thoughts of Jacob on her sites. It is time that I expressed what I have felt. I was the nanny for the boys when they were about 13 months old and Kyle was 3. It was the best summer of my life. I saw the boys a couple of times after that, but I could never bring myself to go and see them after Jacob got cancer. I know that this seems terrible. I just couldn't bear to lose another one of "my kids". When I was 16, a little girl that I used to babysit died in a terrible car accident. I went to her funeral and swore that I would never go to another child's funeral again. She was 2 and the loss of one so young just tore my heart out. So to lose Jacob was an awful blow. I am not sure why I am writing this now after so long, I just feel compelled to do so. It hurt so badly to lose Jacob. That and the fact that James had come home on his short R&R from Iraq are the reasons that I did not attend his memorial. During that R&R, we conceived our son. It was not long after we lost Jacob. I had a dream shortly after we were told that we were having a boy in which I saw Jacob kiss a baby and send him to me. When I woke up, I knew that my son's name would be Matthew Thomas instead of Matthew James. It all just seemed so right. And that is how I look at it. God let Jacob hand pick a child for me and they sent me just the right one. And whether or not it sounds crazy, I choose to believe that. Well, my little angel is cranking at me because he wants to play. So I will just add this: Heather, if you read this, I love you all and hope to see you soon.

Moving

Okay, so the movers are coming to pack us up starting on Wednesday. So that leaves the rest of today and tomorrow to get the whole goods sorted out from everything else. Then Thursday they are coming to pack up the household goods. And Friday they come for storage. I am getting stressed out. There feels like there is so much left to do!!! Thankfully, Sgt. Wilson is being kind and James is done with work unless they need him for a couple of hours tomorrow night. That means that he can help me out with the baby and the packing. We had to go buy some more luggage so we could pack up everything. I have no idea how we are going to get everything into the airport to get checked along with the stroller and the baby. I hope that they have a little trolley or something. We will have six suitcases and three carry-ons. Ugh! I still have to try and make sure that all of the laundry is done. I also need to sort our stuff into the three shipments and get rid of what we don't need. We don't clear the house until August 3, but I would like to try and clean as much as I can before then so I am not overwhelmed. I still need to look into renting cars in St. Louis and Honolulu since we have to drop the van off early and have no idea when it will get there. But enough of the moving woes. I read the new Harry Potter. It was the best of all seven. I will not go into it for fear of spoiling it for others. Matty has started sucking his right thumb. It is so adorable. I will post some pictures of that when I get a chance. He can also "stand" on his legs longer now. And he pulls himself up on your fingers into a sitting position. He is so cute. He wiggles and coos and laughs so much now. He is such a joy! He just grows so fast!!! We have to take him to the doctor tomorrow to have his thyroid checked. I am sure that we are right on track. I love that little boy so much!!! He is the light of our lives. Well, enough wasting time. I have tons to do!

Well, we got back from our trip to Texas and Georgia late on the Fourth of July. We had a really good time. It was just a REALLY LONG car ride. I am so amazed that our son complained as little as he did. We tried to drive at night to make it easier on him. James and I are still trying to catch up on our sleep! It was good to see everyone though. And to see Jeff and Leann get married. I think that they were glad to see us as well. Besides, we both ran around like crazy people trying to help them set up for the wedding. It was nice though. And they both looked so happy. Then we got home and started setting appointments and all for our move to Hawaii. I am starting to feel the pressure now. The movers are coming to pack up our house July 25. The next day they are coming to pack our whole baggage (what we will need when we first get there). And on the 24 they are coming to take out our fence and Matty has a doctor's appointment down in Louisville in the morning. We still have no idea when we are actually shipping out. So in a little over two weeks, I will have no furniture, an empty house, and nowhere to sleep. They said that we could get to Hawaii as early as August 3, but we still don't know what we will do until then. I guess we can stay with friends or in a hotel. I would like to see if we can clear post on July 27 and leave from the Atlanta port. We might actually get to celebrate our anniversary that way. Yes, our first anniversary falls right in the middle of this move. August 2 it will be a year. We'll see what we can do. Hopefully, we can find out more today. We really need to schedule our flight. I am going nuts. And on top of all of this, my son has hit yet another growth spurt and is now in his 6 month clothes. He is a solid baby so he isn't fat, but he is really long. He is over 25 inches long and over 17 pounds now. He is so much fun though. He grabs things, laughs, smiles, talks all the time! He is such a blast! And the absolute best baby. We are loving it. Oh, one more little thing before I go. If you haven't played the new Nintendo Wii yet, you should. It is such fun! We just got one and are having a great time with it. Yet another way to get your kids (and husbands or selves) to exercise. I am still a huge advocate for playing outside, but this is a great alternative on a rainy or cold day. Just a thought.

Click to play Make your own Smilebox