Some hiighlights of the trip:

Shlaw & Boo Shlaw (not quite how she pronounces it but close) and E, of course, hit it off.  It took her a bit to warm up to Shlaw (my mom) this time.  Usually she is warmed up by the time we leave the airport.  Still, they made up quickly!  Oh, how Elizabeth loved playing with her!!  Boo (my step-dad)…I was interested to see how she would react to him this time.  With each trip, she interacts more and would get closer to him but wouldn’t actually touch him.  (He’s never been around little ones much, so its taken him awhile to learn how to interact.)  She interacted with him a LOT more this time, would go around the house looking for him, etc.  It was very cute.

Friend  E & my niece were SO darn cute together!  When we were all at my mom’s there was a bit of territorial-ness going on.  Both are used to being the only one at mom’s and they are both used to having her all to themselves.  Still, they did pretty well.  E learned the sign ‘friend’ when we were home & started using it in reference to my niece.  *so sweet*  Now, whenever she sees someone who is Asian, she also signs it.  Very cute but it makes me want to pack up and move back to IN!!

On the road again My family REALLY needs to live closer together!  As much as I want to see everyone, it just gets too much for E to be in her carseat so much.

The Fair…or not We were going to take the girls to the county fair but with temperatures near triple digits & high humidity, we decided that it would be too miserable for the girls. So we went to Chuck E. Cheese instead. The girls had a great time. It was crazy-busy (even for CEC) but not too bad overall. They have a toddler area which was nice to corral the girls.
‘Round and around and around she goes  E’s highlight of visitng Jim’s parents was getting to drive the boat!  She LOVES steering wheels.  When we took her out the first time, I knew she’d want to drive and I prepped myself for a struggle.  His dad, to my surprise, asked her if she wanted to steer.  Her face LIT up.  She loved doing circles the most.  NOT good for his mom who can get motion sick. LOL

Signing Time  If you’re looking for a good video to help teach littles ones sign language, I HIGHLY recommend these!!  I had a portable DVD player so E could watch these.  She learned a half-dozen or so signs just in the short times she’d watch it in the car.  GREAT videos!  And not terribly annoying to listen to.  LOL

Just a short entry (almost nap time–YEA!!) to say we’re back from a *wonderful* trip to Indiana. It was really a nice time.  The weather was mostly good & included a couple GREAT thunder storms (we don’t get thunder or lightening here).  Family was wonderful.  E & my niece got along awesome (E uses the sign ‘friend’ when referring to my niece! *sweet*).  And I left before it got to the point that I was beyond ready to go home.  LOL

I’ll do a longer trip report when I get the time.

The *HOT* weather has descended upon us! Man, yesterday was awful!! While this house doesn’t have air conditioning either, it doesn’t have the afternoon sun coming into the living room and it has more windows, a better layout for air flow and the windows open more. Much cooler than in our last place but still not comfortable when its 95 and your fans are in Germany! LOL It is supposed to cool off tomorrow, thankfully.

We joined the YMCA tonight. They are offering free membership to military members and free registration to military dependants. We’ve been looking around for swimming & gymnastics for Elizabeth. We couldn’t find any swimming for her age and the gymnastics was going to cost us almost as much as the Y membership for both of us. So for an add’l $4/month, she’ll get both of those plus I can workout there (our gym on post doesn’t have A/C and is ridiculously hot) and we can do free swim times also. I met the lady who runs the aquatic program at LLL last month. I enjoyed talking to her at the meeting last month. It’d be nice to have a friendly face to talk to when we go there.

Elizabeth & I are heading to Indiana next week. I’m looking forward to getting away and sleeping in a bed. LOL I had prepared myself to not be home again until the winter (once we were in Germany) but now that we’re still here, I have been itching to get back. I’m pretty psyched. The cheapest ticket, though, was for a direct flight (NWA just started doing directs). I have always enjoyed the layovers as they have given us a nice break. Also, this flight is completly booked, so we really won’t have space to move about, so layovers are esp. nice for those flights. It’ll be interesting for sure!!
We now have three of Jim’s school dates! We’re still waiting on dates for two (three?) more. He’ll start in October and should finish up next September. Where we go from there we don’t yet know. Our next duty station & the other school dates *should* be given to us by the end of the week.

Our goods are still sitting in Germany, as far as we know. Jim is going back in tomorrow to see what he can find out. I want my dang bed!!! Or, at the very least, my couch! Our inflattable loveseat popped a hole in it and both camping chairs we got have now broken (we got them from Target and that makes FIVE that haven’t lasted…three broke within a day and we returned each of those, which should have been our first clue! LOL). So we’d like to replace at least one of those if not both.

I am SO ready for this move to just be over!!  It has some extra complications since it is a brigade move and not a normal PCS move (and a few advantages) that are incredibly annoying.  Add to that, Jim is in air assault school for another week and he started over the weekend.  So no weekend downtime for me.  And every evening last week was spent getting ready for it, so little downtime for me then.  Late nights this week & lots of studying, so again, no downtime.  Plus he’s just being a plain ‘ol pain in my rear these last few days!! My mom is coming this weekend, which really excites me.  But I’m also stressing about it because that will be the last time I see her for a year-ish.  And the last time she’ll see E.   It is always tough for me to take her to the airport anyway but this time is going to be so, so tough.  Easter weekend we’ll spend getting ready for the first round of movers, that week we’ll spend getting ready for the second round, Jim’s parents come that weekend (HORRIBLY bad timing but they didn’t listen to us before they bought their tickets, so they’ll have to deal with us not being available the entire time) and the second round of movers come that Monday.  THEN we can rest though we’ll be resting on air mattresses with a couple books, a laptop and a portable DVD player because everything else will be gone.  LOL  Times like this I wonder WHY we’re doing this military thing!!  So, if you’re the prayerful-type, I’d appreciate any you can spare.  If not, keeping us in your thoughts would be appreciated. 

Ugh.  I let things lapse once again.  I REALLY wish I could get disciplined enough to keep my journal up-to-date.  I hate letting it get so behind.  I’m still struggling to get WordPress installed (stuck on the SQL/myPHP part currently).  I really think I would do better if I could just get that figured out.  But, alas, I can’t.  And since I’m paying for the web space on this site anyway, I really hate to go to another site that is ready-to-use with WordPress.

Anyway….just back from a short trip to Indiana.  I really wanted to go longer but I couldn’t  But for a good reason…JIM IS COMING HOME SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Less than a month to go!!!!!!  So I had to squeeze in this trip between his R&R, other committements here and then getting back here in enough time to have a couple weeks to complete to-do list, get E back on a loose routine and have some down time.

In other news…

It looks like we’ll leave Fort Lewis come spring.  Jim is currently seperated from his company so he isn’t entirely sure of the orders but we do know we’ll be moving east (can’t get much further west!! LOL).  I’ve had the bug to move since the summer, when several friends started moving. I’m eager to see other places, see what other bases have to offer, meet new people.  But I’m also a little sad to leave here.  Besides the people I’ll miss (who’ll be leaving here themselves, at some point), I’ll be sad to leave the place that was so much about Elizabeth–where she was conceived , where I gave birth to her, a wondeful hospital & doula that I wish I could have for our second child, the place where she spent her first year of life.  I am so sentimental on things like that.

E is officially a walker runner.  While she took her first alone steps over a month ago, its like she never “got” that she was walking.  But now…look out!!  And her newly-understood talent has given her more confidence in her already-good climbing skills.  Today I turned around for one minute TOPS and turned back around to see she had climbed onto the couch (a new thing), stood on a pillow & climbed onto the back of the couch (another new thing) and then proceeded to the sofa table behind it, where she then stamped her feet (new shoes!) on the GLASS part of the table while clapping her hands and smiling VERY proudly.  She was looking SO cute in her new outfit (cream shirt from Old Navy, brown cords & khaki & brown saddle-shoes) and SO proud of herself, I couldn’t help but smile.  But, man, ONE minute!  And I was in the same room!!!

My new niece is BEYOND precious!!  When we got to Indy, they were at the airport but she was asleep.   I stayed with my sister that night and early the next morning I met her.  She came right to me and we cuddled while I cried.  What an amazing feeling to hold my first niece.  She is such an “easy” baby!  She rarely cries, even when frustrated.  She goes to just about anyone and is content to stay with them.  Sleeps through the night w/little-to-no effort on their part.  Naturally fell into a schedule.  Naps 2-4 hours a day.  Man, what I wouldn’t give for just ONE of those traits!! LOL  Definitely a very happy baby who very obviously loves her parents.  The bonding is VERY strong, just as I expected.  I can’t imagine it could be any stronger if my sister had birthed her.  It was very hard to say good-bye to her and I can’t wait until we’re home in December.

Amy–Good to see an update from you.  I just got around to updating my blog as well.  LOL  Great news about Jim being home soon.  My Jim is in his last week of full time travel for awhile and I am excited as well.

jen–Great to see an update!!  Congrats on Jim coming home and the new move.  i love moving, it’s so adventurous!  E sounds like she’s really enjoying herself.  hehe  o:)

Vicki–I am SO excited for you about Jim coming home.  That is totally so awesome.  I am glad that you are semi-happy about the move.  Me, I am totally a sentimental person, and I hate moving!  Adventurous nothing, it’s scary!  LOL.

And, your niece is soooooooooo adorable.  Too cute.  What did Elizabeth think of her?  Was she jealous of you holding her?
Lisanne–You’re moving? Wow, that’s exciting news! I know that you said east, but do you know *where*? Glad you’re enjoying being an aunt!