I am slacking!

I really need to start updating this more...Things have been a little hectic lately and they are finally starting to wind down...As soon as I have some freetime I will blog and post some pictures..Hopefully tomorrow or Friday since Pete is off and I can crawl in bed with the laptop and post away!...
Until then, take care!
~~Danielle

Going Home

So I just noticed that I have not posted on this thing in FOREVER!...I am sorry!...We have been so busy here in Florida that I have not had time to do anything!...
Pete already went home last month and Emilie and I will begin our journey home this weekend..We are leaving here to go to Charleston on Thursday so we can spend some time with Kara before we go...We hope that by Monday or Tuesday we will be home in Germany...I have missed it soooo much!...I am ready to get back to our house and our routine!...I am actually excited about being back in Germany..A lot has changed since we came home and I will make sure to update with a longer blog when I get home and settled...
I hope everyone is doing FABULOUS!

~~Danielle

Lagging.....

So I have been inspired to write another blog since Kara finally decided to join us on here again :-)
Things here are good...Pete and I are better...Emilie is in her terrible twos, but is doing great...She is showing improvements in her speech therapy, but I know it is going to be a really long road...I am a little scared about how she will do this summer without having them come once a week...I may just set up a day once a week to go over any and everything Allyn has taught me to use on her...I just long for the day that she can tell me what she wants...It saddens me that she can not do that :-(...
We leave next weekend to head to the states for the summer and let me tell you, I am so uber excited!...I have been couped up in this little apartment for the last 6 months because my husband works such icky hours that we never have the time to go out and do anything fun...When we do get out, it is only to Heidelberg which can get pretty old...I am hoping that next year his hours will not be as crappy and we will be able to get out and explore more...He has still been working 12 hour shifts and they are suppose to be going to 8 hour shifts this week...Go figure!...We are leaving and they change it!...
But anyways, I am really looking forward to seeing everyone from back home...I have not seen my Charleston friends in almost a year and I am looking forward to seeing you all again!...I have missed having fun, real people to hang out with...My friends here are great, do not get me wrong, but it is way different...I actually do not think any of them read this blog lol...I just really miss the friendships that I made in Charleston and cannot wait to be around them again, even if it is just for a few days at a time...
We get to see Lydia the 9th of June!...I am so excited to see her!...It has been a year since we have seen her as well and I hate that!...She will be with us for a month so I am looking forward to that...I love that we have a good relationship with her mom and she trusts me to bring Lydia home without Pete...I think that trust between us all is what makes things so good for Lydia...I cannot wait to see how her and Emilie are together!...Last time, Emilie followed her around and wanted to do everything she was doing...It was so cute!...
So I have also started a weight loss journey...I started going back to the gym and have lost 4 lbs so far...I am going to be joining Bally's in Orlando when I go home so I can keep at it...My goal is to lose 30-40lbs by the time I come back to Germany in September...That way I can be healthier and hopefully it will not be as hard to get pregnant...We found out that I am not ovulating regularly and I have an appointment on the 19th with a specialist to hopefully get on some fertility aide...So if they give me something and we try it the month of June and I get pregnant, that would be fantastic!...But I am ok if it does not work right away...It will give me time to work on myself...
Ok, so I have written a lot...I will blog again, more than likely not until after I am in the states!...
See a lot of you guys soon!

I really need to keep this thing updated more!

Hi everyone!...
Things here have been going pretty good...Emilie is doing her speech therapy meeting at least once a week...So far we are tackling the results we want to achieve...This week though, we will be starting the whole speech thing...She has a hearing test to do on Wednesday and then they will be coming out on Thursday for her appointment...Part of me kind of hopes that maybe she is just not hearing well because of the wax problem she had as an infant...Then they would put tubes in and the problem could fix itself...I of course hope her hearing is fine though because who really wants to put her baby under to have the tubes put in!??...Not me!...I worry enough with her!...She is trying though!...She says more words now but it is still a struggle to get her to try to say them...I think it is because she gets sick of always being asked to say something...I would too if I were 2 and everyone just kept wanting me to say random words LOL...
Pete and I are doing much better...The stress of Germany has really impacted our marriage but we are going to get through it...We love each other and both want to be together...We know that once we get back to the states it will be easier...He is working 12 hour overnight shifts here so he is gone by 4:30 5pm, gets home around 6:30am and then sleeps until 2 or 3 then starts the cycle all over again...I have been overwhelmed with Emilie, the house, and school...Then when you add not seeing my husband or spending time with him it really takes its toll on a marriage...But we will get through it...We have been together for 5 years and married for 4 on Thursday...So we know we will make it...
I am getting REALLY excited to go to the states!...We leave in about 54 days and I can not wait!...We are not sure where we are flying into yet...We are planning on trying for any of the bases on the east coast and then driving to Charleston...I think that will give us a better chance at getting a flight the day we want...Then we will be in Charleston for a few days before heading to Orlando!...Petes mom will be coming to Orlando with Lydia on June 8th so we are really excited about seeing her!...I talked to her mom Kristina and she is more than ok with letting Lydia stay after his mom leaves until Pete leaves the end of June and then I will drive her back up to Toledo...It is so nice that we get along like that!...I am excited to be spending 3 weeks with BOTH my girls!...They are going to have so much fun!...
Well I am going to go watch a movie with doddlebop and hope she crashes early since she ran at the park for a few hours...
I will update again soon!
~~ME

Does it ever end???

So the last week has been pretty hectic...We had Emilies party on Saturday...It was so much fun!...Emilie loved playing with her friends Shelby and Sophie...She also enjoyed the presents from our friends!...Her cake turned out great but it was so big that we took the rest of it to the jail for Petes co-workers to enjoy...
We also had the evaluation from the speech pathologist come out last week and do her tests on Emilie...She ranked as a 3 year old in EVERYTHING except talking/communication...Her other motor skills and developmental skills she was average or above average...So when they added up all the scores she still did NOT qualify for speech therapy...But she said she was writing a letter of recommendation to have them accept Emilie into the program anyways because she is very behind in her talking skills...They think they know what her problem is though...Her tongue has always been a bit on the long side and they think that her mouth is just plain lazy...They think that if we were to build up the muscles in her mouth and lips she will be able to talk better...They are coming back out on Thursday to make a one year plan to get her talking...
I felt like the worst mom in the world though...All of the things that my baby says and that I have always been so proud of her for she did not get credit for when she said them during the testing...She says I love you, but since it is not the actual words, but more of the sound with a lot of O's she would not get credit for it...Since she can not say no and instead says Nah, she did not get credit for it...They pretty much only gave her credit for the small words, like mama, dada, nana and hot...I honestly sometimes feel like I let my daughter down...I know that this is something that I probably had no control over, but I can not help but wonder if I would have done something different that, that she would be talking like a normal 2 year old by now...
We will see how all of that goes when we make a plan on Thursday...I just want her talking to be normal...Right now I am afraid of silly things, like that she will never talk normal or she will be behind in school because of her speaking skills...That scares me so much :-(
There is a lot of other stuff going on right now that has just made my stress level rise this last week and some of you are aware of things...I would rather not go into detail right now and may blog about all of that in the future, but if I seem distant please do not take offense to it...I am just trying to figure out who I am anymore.....................................

Our "baby" is 2!

I can not believe that 2 years ago today Ms. Emilie Ann was born...Where did that time go?...I can not believe those 2 years have just kinda flown by!...Next thing I know she will be starting school and then graduating school...:-(

Today we just made some cupcakes and gave her the tricycle that Nana and Papa got for her...We will be doing the whole "party" thing on Saturday...I hope she has as much fun then as she did today, but I am sure that she will :-)

She really is such a blessing and I am so thankful that she came into our lives...Anyone who is a mother knows what I mean...I think my life became complete when I heard those first cries...It will be even more than complete when we have another joy grace us with their presence as well!...

Thank you to everyone who has sent her birthday wishes!...You guys are all the greatest friends I could have asked for!

Happy Birthday to me...NOT!

Uggg...Where do I start?...My 29th birthday was yesterday...Honestly unless you looked at my Myspace or Facebook you would not have know...For starters, some of my so called "friends" did not even wish me a happy birthday...No call, no email, no comment...Nothing...THANKS YOU GUYS!...I will remember that when your birthday comes around...Ok I will not, because I am not RUDE!...It is hard enough when you are away from your family and close friends, the least your friends around you could do is call and say happy birthday...Ok I am done with that now...
Second, my husband was an ass!..Plain and simple!...I mean he was not like that all day but I had mentioned that I wanted to go pick up some steak and potatos and have a nice dinner at home and his response?...Oh well I will help you cook but I can not eat dinner with you...Ummm ok why not?...Because he had a stupid basketball game to play in...He just recently decided that he wanted join the team that the prison has they had a game last night...Mind you this team NEVER wins and the whole league is a joke...Nobody goes to the games and no one even cares...So I was upset and pissed because he chose to go to this game and I sat home with Emilie and ate Burger King...Anyone who lives overseas knows the joys of Burger King...It sucks!...
Third (yup there is a third), Petes package from PacSun came and I am STILL waiting on my stuff from Old Navy and Childrens Place...Are you kidding me?!?!...I could have at least gotten my packages I ordered but NNOOOOOO....So I look on the website and it says that my boxes were mailed FEDEX...WTH???...Apparently it is a new thing...They decided to stop shipping priority to APO address and use FedEx...So it can take up to 30 business days for my orders to get here...Ya, Thanks for that little tidbit of info!...Grrrr....
Emilie did have her 2 year old well baby checkup...Why they call it well baby still is beyond me....They should call it screaming toddler because she does not want some strange guy poking her belly checkup...I swear people probably thought we were stealing all her toys the way she was screaming when the doctor was listening to her heartbeat!...Poor baby...There is nothing that breaks your heart more than when your child is screaming your name and crying for you while some random person is poking her and you can not really do anything about it :-(...The good thing is that they did not give her any shots!...YAY!!...They said that if her immunizations were up to date she does not need anymore until 4 years old...Well the clinic here only has her immunizations that she had done in August...Apparently Charleston did not send her shot records with her medical records so I have to pick those up in May and hope they gave her all of them...I am sure they did though, because she got shots EVERYTIME until this visit...
So anyways, Emilie is 34 inches and 27lbs...She is tall and thin... She is in the 40th and 50th percentile so they say she is good...They are still worried about her talking, but she has an appointment with EDIS again next week so I will update more on that when we know what they are going to do...
So that was my fun filled day yesterday...I am ready to go to Florida...We plan on leaving the end of May and I can not wait!...I am ready to go NOW!...Uggg...I hope the rest of the week gets better!...

~~~ME

Tax Season, Mailroom and Packages, OH MY

What do most people do with their money they get back from taxes?...I honestly want to know...I know on average about 95% say they put it into savings, but do they really???...I said that I was going to put some into savings but now am thinking of cutting that amount in half to buy a new TV :-)...So I am just wondering if I am the only one who says they are going to put it in savings and then changes their mind...We already have a nice chunk in savings and it is not like we NEED the money, but I am afraid I will feel so guilty if I do not put that money in savings...Aggg...Who knows what I will do...What is new this week?...The mail people suck at their job...You would think that they would get on the ball and put out mail when it comes...Instead they are slow and we are just now getting mail that was mailed to us 2 weeks ago...I am still waiting on packages to get to me...All of Emilie and I's summer clothes...It just makes no sense to me when we ordered the Wii Fit last week and got it this week, yet we ordered all those clothes and they were shipped January 24th and we have yet to see them...Let me tell you there will be hell raised if Petes PacSun order gets here before my stuff!...I am turning 29 on Monday...Wow...This will be my last year in my 20's...It is so crazy to think back the last 9 years and see where I have come from and what I have become...I never thought I would be married, with a child and living in Germany...I do know I always wanted those things and would not trade them for anything in the world...Ok, well except Germany...I hate this place...I keep trying to have an open mind and when I came back in December I told myself I would make things different...NOTHING has changed...I still sit at home, Pete still works all the time...He submitted his packages for K-9 and CATM so hopefully we hear some good news about that...We are not sure if they would send him to school and then a new base or make him finish his tour here first and then go to school...I am hoping they will send him now and try to send him to another base...With my luck though, it will not happen...Ok well I have babbled long enough...I will write again soon!...More than likely on my birthday because that is when my munchkin goes in for her 2 year check-up!~~ME

It has been awhile!

So I completely lost track of writing in this blog, but since I find myself coming on here all the time to read my friends blogs I figure that I should start updating mine more!...
Last you all read it was March of 2008 and SOOOOOO much has changed since then!

We are now living in Mannheim, Germany and have been here for almost 7 months...I was very excited to come here but since we have gotten here I have to admit that I miss the states like crazy!...I am ready to get this tour over with and get back closer to family...I know there is so much to see and do here so I am taking advantage of everything I can for the next 2 1/2 years but I honestly hope they fly by!...

Emilie is doing great!...She will be 2 in a few weeks...I can not believe that she is already turning 2!...I feel like she was just born...She is such an amazing little girl!...She is still having some problems with her speech but we are working with her and hope that she grows out of it...She has another appointment the week of her birthday to see if they will be doing speech therapy on a regular basis...So we will see!...

We are going home for the summer...Well at least Emilie and I are...Pete will only be there for about 3 or 4 weeks...We plan on leaving the end of May and Emilie and I will fly back out here the end of August...We will be staying at my parents, who will be living in Florida!...I am so excited!!..They just got a 5 bedroom house right outside of Orlando so we will be spending the summer swimming in the pool and going to the parks!...I can not wait!...

I will update this thing a lot more now and I will post some pictures too!...I just wanted to let you all know that we are still alive and doing fabulous!!!