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By Alyssa, September 10, 2011 6:15 pm

Four months ago I became a single parent.  After hating his job for almost a year, Haus came across an opportunity to work a short term engineering contract in Portland.  We prayed and talked and prayed and he decided to take it.  He quit his job on a Tuesday in May, worked until Friday, then packed up over the weekend, and hit the road that Monday for Portland.

He left without a solid timeframe for returning to Denver and, oh yeah, with me 19 weeks pregnant with our third kiddo.  Crazy?  Maybe.  I didn’t feel like I could argue at the time as I’d left him on pretty short notice twice before during my overseas Army deployments.  The first week after he was gone, I thought, I can do this. I’ve deployed before, I know friends that have done this while their husbands were deployed…. no worries.

Then I realized I needed someone to mow the lawn pronto, my two-year-old lost his mind having Daddy away, and a neighbor tried to verbally assault me at a block party knowing my hubby was out of town.  That was week two of our separation.  Thank goodness I had some good support around me.  A girlfriend’s hubby volunteered to mow our lawn every two weeks, Haus started a webcam schedule with our little guys which helped them immensely, and the rest of my neighbors banded together to support me despite the one bad apple on the block.

Unlike my military spouse friends, I had opportunities to see Haus during our time apart.  I took a hard look at the calendar and made a last minute trip up to Idaho in June so that Haus could spend 24 hours with us, vacationed for two weeks in July as a family in Portland, and made it through August on my knees praying as Haus negotiated a permanent job back here.  Around the end of August, we found out he would return for good on September 10th and the boys and I made our paper chain link countdown.

I learned two very important lessons during the last four months. Lesson 1- having your hubby away while you’re preggered with two small children stinks, period.  If it weren’t for friends that wouldn’t take “we’re fine” for an answer, I would have lost it on a daily basis.  Lesson 2- I will NEVER compare myself again to a military momma that has her hubby away.  They are ten times tougher than I am as their husbands are usually gone for more than a year, in a dangerous place, and they only get a two week spouse visit OR LESS during the separation.

We picked up Haus from the airport this morning so right now it seems like the time flew by.   Then again there were nights during the last four months when I really wondered if I could do it another 24 hours. Enough whining for today though, it was tough, it is over, and I’m going to go watch some football with my Hubby. If you were one of those that helped us out, I cannot thank you enough, and if you’re a military mama with your man deployed, I’m praying for his safe and quick return.

The boys and their just-returned Daddy

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By Alyssa, September 9, 2011 9:13 pm

My nesting pattern so far:

Prior to Bubba’s birth- decorated his nursery, organized our CDs, right before he was born, baked a few pies and cleaned our ceiling fans (Yes, I did stand on our kitchen table nine months pregnant to accomplish that last task).

Prior to Zeke’s birth- reorganized the baby clothes, sold and bought baby items on Craigslist, redid the nursery.

Prior to baby #3′s birth… and the kid’s not born yet so I add to this list daily- reorganized our entire filing system to include color coding, reorganized our master closet, reorganized the boys closet, labeled bins and reorganized the basement toys, sorted through all of our manuals, software items, old picture CDs, etc. and, of course, labeled everything, scrubbed down our front porch and front door, redecorated our master bedroom, created a gallery wall in our living room, moved furniture upstairs and downstairs (with help on the big items), tried to paint our stair railing upstairs and down (then realized I really shouldn’t get on a ladder and the belly wouldn’t allow me to reach OVER the railing to paint so hired some really nice contractors), painted and decorated our master bathroom, reorganized our homeschool room, and started to scrapbook Zeke’s baby book (that I’m determined to finish before baby #3 is born).

Wow, now that I’ve written it all out I really must be nuts.  I will offer an excuse that with Haus gone the last four months (see tomorrow’s post) I tried to stay busy and not lonely at night after the boys were in bed… but, wow.  I’m crazy.

Look for decorating pics next week!

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By Alyssa, September 6, 2011 10:42 am

Remember my weak sauce suburb garden from last year?

This year I had zero motivation to redo the garden, but Haus surprised me by installing an automatic drip system on Mother’s Day.  Hmmmm, no watering work, I thought.  Why not throw a few seeds out there.

So that’s exactly what I did.  I used all the seeds I purchased last year, bought a couple bags of compost to mix into the existing dirt, and let the boys help plant.

What happened next was crazy!  With an automatic watering system nourishing the plants 10 minutes in the morning and evening, I became the owner of the garden of Eden.

Squash with lettuce thrown in

Marigolds surrounding beets, carrots, and lettuce

I enjoyed fresh salad from the garden all summer and yesterday I harvested about a dozen beets and carrots I hadn’t touched since planting in June.

Lesson learned?  Go ahead and buy a super easy to install drip watering system and watch your thumb turn green.

P.S. As a side note, I don’t think my harvest was quite as plentiful using last year’s seeds but it didn’t cost me anything extra so I didn’t care.

P.P.S. The Dig Corp drip irrigation starter kit Haus bought and supplemented from Home Depot cost us about $50 total.

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By Alyssa, September 1, 2011 7:44 am

Whose idea was it for us to NOT find out our baby’s gender this time around? WHO?

Maybe it’s the hormones, but I’ve realized that I am a very bad candidate for gender surprises.  I’m incredibly Type-A and a serious planner.  I didn’t realize how much I planned and bonded with my boys in utero.  I knew their name before they were born and imagined what they looked like.  This sweet babe kicks and moves all the time and I think, boy… girl… boy… girl?

To make matters worse, this pregnancy has been so different.  The first trimester was RIDICULOUS, throwing up every night no matter what trick I tried.  I crave citrus and fried chicken like nobody’s business, two things I couldn’t touch when pregnant with the boys.  I’ve got this awesome heartburn that started about two weeks ago and looks like it’s going to stay up till the end.

Some things are the same.  I still have the torpedo belly.  I had a friend tell me that although she had seen pictures of my past pregnancies, nothing prepared her for my out-front-belly.  I’ve started to scare people again as you can’t tell that I’m preggered when you’re behind me.  Oh and belly pics are coming soon for those that are curious.

It all seems a little silly, this gender worry, when I really think about it.  Am I praying that this little person is healthy regardless of gender?  Absolutely.  Could I be having weird new symptoms with another little boy?  Probably.  Is this a great lesson on patience and living in the moment?  Unfortunately.

Haus is beyond excited that we AREN’T finding out the gender so I’m trying to be enthusiastic with him.  Only a couple more weeks to go.  I can make it, right?

Would love to hear if you found out the gender of your children.  Leave me a comment!

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By Alyssa, August 27, 2011 9:04 pm

Sometimes it’s hard to be a Seahawks fan.

I married into the Hawk pride, but have never cheered them on from home.  When we lived in El Paso, it was all about the Cowboys.  Then came Colorado Springs, our first taste of Bronco Country.  Sure the Springs folk were fans, but moving to Denver opened my eyes to what it must have been like for Haus growing up.  Haus spent the first half of his life living in Sea-town cheering on his team.  Then he got stuck with an Army wife and is forced to sport his Largent jersey at the local grocery store where all the checkers are wearing Elway.

I’ll admit I’ve become a pretty big fan after ten years of scouting out every T.V. station, radio network, and free internet site that plays the Seahawks games.  On rare occasions like tonight, the Seahawks play the Broncos and I bite my nails and watch on Primetime.  Last year we went to the game and I was so proud of Haus.  They lost, arrgghhh, but he held his head high despite constant jeering on our walk both in and out of the stadium.

I guess it could be worse.  We could live in Pittsburgh or Chicago.  I told Haus at least once on a trip back to his parents it would be fun to go to a game with all the other 12th man fans.  Until then, I’ll shield my boys from the ridiculous amounts of orange and blue and pray they grow up to love the Seahawks as much as their dad.

Go Hawks!