This is My Forties

I love weekends. I look forward to them all week. We had a little picnic in the park on Saturday and then chased the ducks and geese around for a bit. We saw a lot of ducklings and goslings, some mom's on nests and even some eggs that hadn't hatched. After that we treated ourselves to some ice cream. As for today, we went to the zoo again this morning... always fun :) We've been waiting for rain here for quite some time. It hasn't rained more than a few drops yet, but it makes for some gorgeous cloud-cover!

I'm trying to stay positive, but it's getting increasingly difficult! Josh will be coming home in October and I get to keep him for a whole month, but after that he has to go back to Germany and may have to stay until June. JUNE!!! AHHHH!!! So, we're looking at other options right now. I think we've agreed that switching his job would be a good idea. If he switches MOS's he'll actually make it home sometime around March, he'd actually get promoted, and we may even get to stay in San Antonio. Granted, I'm not that keen on this place, but I would certainly welcome the ease and stability of him getting stationed out here. I've got family and friends out here already and I don't want to leave them so that would be nice. Also if he goes into Military Intelligence he wouldn't get deployed for an entire year again. They typically only go for 6 months at a time. 6 months still sucks, but it's definitely better than another year of this ...

This morning Noah was reading books to Bear in his crib so I snagged a picture. I can't believe he's almost 2! Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? :) We'll start with, of course his newborn picture... He looked pretty cute for a newborn I thought. I think I did a pretty good job pushing. Here he is at 2 months old. I just love his face in this picture. Here he is at the ripe old age of 5 months. He was trying to crawl and smiling constantly which made it easy to see when he was teething haha! Here he is at 7 months. He was pulling up, speed crawling, eating a LOT and he had quite a few teeth already! Perfect for biting mommy. And, still smiling :) This is Noah at 10 mos. He was standing on his own and cruising really well. He started walking towards the end of his 10th month. And here he is on his 1st Birthday. This is the first time he had ice cream or cake, and the last time he had either in my presence... stupid daycare thinks sugar is fine for...

I just had to tell everyone about all the plans I am making for Noah's Home Preschool. I want to have a "color week" where every day of the week we focus on one color, Sunday we go over the whole rainbow. Let's take Monday, "Red Day" for example. We will color and paint in red. We will make red playdoh or something. We will have red themed lunch. We will take a trip and find all red things and take a picture of each with a little disposable camera, take the camera to one hour photo while enjoying some ice cream. Then we'll come home and scrapbook the pictures and write what everything is. Stop signs, Firetruck, fire hydrant, stop light... all the common red things. Another week will be animals, another trees, bugs. Maybe not all will be picture scavenger hunts, but I like the theme idea. We can even go to the library and find books on the topics. I can't wait. Just thought I'd share.

Josh sent me all the pics from his visit (back in April). Here's some of my favorites. Aunt Vita & Uncle Joe... ahhh good times :) The preciousness is almost more than I can bear. This is my new desktop picture

Noah and I went to the Chinese Tea Gardens today. They're being renovated so there's no water under the bridges right now, but it was still very pretty... and very hot :P We got home just in time for dinner. Josh had a day off so I set the laptop up in the dining room and he watched Noah and I make dinner. Then he watched me do the dishes and sort some laundry. He had missed all that normal household stuff. My poor baby... I miss his help too.

This park is far from the house, but it's so worth the drive. They've got this huge playground and the thing behind us in the photo is just a building they turned into a playground, ramps and ladders and tunnels and steps everywhere. The perfect "hide and go seek" spot. That's Jennifer in the background. Noah loved these tunnels. He also loved climbing the ladders, which sorta made me nervous to let him do on his own. He had to really work hard, but he climbed every ladder by himself. We brought some ritz crackers to feed to the crazy ducks there. This park is right behind the zoo and I think maybe some of the zoo animals escaped and started cross breeding or something. This one looks like a cross between a goose and a rooster. COME BACK TO ME DUCKS! He was chasing them all over the place. We finally got home at 9:00. Texas in the summer is nice at times. It wasn't even dark at 8:30! So anyway, that was our day yesterday. We had a pretty fun time. ...

Here's Noah at the playground. I was too afraid to let go and get a pic of him hanging from the pull-up bars. I am going to speed walk there every day after dinner and do a little arm workout too. I've gotten weak since I got out of the Army. Luckily I've got a 27lb baby to keep me in shape. Baby curls are fun ;)

"I'm About To Come Alive" TRAIN I can hear you downstairs crying on the phone Telling someone that I'm here but you still feel all alone Maybe we were too young Goodbye, I've gotta go I can hear the baby waking up Got to get back to the life I know I should have never believed him Maybe I should just leave him Maybe I'm not but you're all I got left to believe in Don't give up on me I'm about to come alive And I know that it's been hard And it's been a long time coming Don't give up on me I'm about to come alive No one thought I was good enough for you Except for you Don't let them be right After all that we've been through 'Cause somewhere over that rainbow There's a place for me A place with you In every frame upon our wall Lies a face that's seen it all Through ups and downs and then more downs We helped each other off of the ground No one knows what we've been through Makin...

I got to watch my baby take a nap before work... it was extremely soothing but gut-wrenching at the same time. October.

Yeah sure "bufferies" is a word (as in buff). Noah and I powerwalked to the playground today and did some pullups and push ups. I was surprised at how strong he is already. I let him hang for a while on his own and he was trying to pull himself up. So then I held his legs and he did about 5 pullups. I was doing push ups and he plopped next to me and basically did the worm haha. He was climbing ladders on his own, tried to climb the fireman's pole. When I helped him it was like it came natural, he did hand over hand, wrapped his feet around. He was amazing me today. I didn't bring my camera with me, but I will next time! Here's a pic anyways :) he was moping yesterday right before bathtime, he was tired

Today was a lazy day indeed. Jennifer and I soaked up some sun while playing "Six Degrees" and both got a litle crispy. It rarely rains in Texas... well, not since I've lived here at least. So, when it started raining today we enjoyed watching it. Then we all went on a walk in the rich people neighborhood and almost got locked in. After that we came home and I let little nudie boy play in the puddles for awhile before his bath.

Went to the lake with Jackie, Tristan and Jonathan (he's the little one)