So Happy to Write this Post

Yes, those are pictures of our beautiful baby!! We are having a baby on August 20th of this year. We weren't really planning on this, it just kind of happened, but the timing truly couldn't be more perfect and I'm so grateful to be having this baby.

As of today I am 11 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Morning sickness, aka ALL DAY sickness, has been in full effect since 5.5 weeks. I've been taking medication to help with it and it has been a life saver. I tried to come off of it yesterday since I had been feeling so well, alas, I'm not ready yet. So on it I will stay for the time being.

I have had 3 ultrasounds and all of them have gone beautifully. So it really does look like we'll get to be parents at the end of this pregnancy. I bought a fetal heart rate monitor and was able to find the heart rate at home on Saturday for the first time, holding steady at 165 bpm. It is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.

The reason I haven't posted in so long is because I couldn't reveal this surprise yet and didn't trust myself to talk about anything else. The last two months have pretty much consisted of me throwing up and sleeping, not very exciting!

We are really happy to be getting some visitors soon! Kolt's whole family will be coming to visit on the 10th of March. I am counting down the days until they get here and know that we will have such a blast. There will be a lot of pictures from that week I'm sure and I will be sure to post some.

I don't think this announcement comes as a surprise to any of my readers as I think I'm friends with everyone on facebook, but this is by far the best post I've ever made!!

Happy in Texas

I'm not even sure when the last time I posted was! It has been a busy month. I went out to Wisconsin for my niece's wedding which was a blast. Then right after that Kolt's parents and I took off for Florida followed by Alabama. We had a wonderful time and it was a great experience to be there when he graduated from COT. I've loved being with him full time again and don't take it for granted for a second!

We had a great time at Thanksgiving in Idaho. It was a mad dash to run around and see everyone before we left. We saw two sets of friends, one in Utah one in Preston, Kolt's grandmother in Preston, then Kolt's sister and her family and his parents. We did a quick Christmas party then drove back to my parent's for Thanksgiving. It was delicious and I hope we get a chance to go home for the holidays next year! The drive out here was long and thankfully uneventful. The dogs did great on the trip and I'm very grateful for that. Then we stopped in Ft. Worth and spent the night with my Aunt Laura and my grandmother! It was wonderful getting to see them, however briefly it was. Then the next day I got to have breakfast with my childhood best friend, Katie. THAT was one of the highlights of my year. I haven't seen her since I was 15 and I've really missed her. She lives in Ft. Worth as well and so is only 4 short hours away now! She really helped me to feel like I was as alone down here.

We are mostly settled into our house on base. We haven't decided wether or not we want to stay here permenantly. It's small and has no garage, which is a big problem. BUT, we don't want to move again. The big issue is Wilford Hall, the airforce hospital, and Brooks Army Medical Center (which will be referred to as BAMC from now on) are merging. Kolt's unit will be moving into BAMC in about 6 months to a year. Problem is BAMC is all the way on the other side of town and one of the huge reasons for living on base was proximity to work. We'll figure it out as we go but there is a big possibility of us moving in the future. Wether we will buy or rent is still undecided.

For now we are happy and mostly settled into our new home in Texas. The weather here has been warm but mostly cloudy and misty. It's the strangest thing, but when it's misty here it's not really raining per se, but there's moisture in the air and it makes the roads almost as slick as with ice! I'm learning to drive on it and have been very careful.

It hasn't really hit me yet that we're alone down here and I haven't had time to get lonely yet, but I'm sure it will come. We don't have any plans to go home at the moment, but I'm sure we'll make some soon. To all of our family and friends, we love you and miss you! Merry Christmas!

10 days to go!

I thought I'd pop on and write one more post before my traveling adventures begin tomorrow! I leave in the morning to drive to Salt Lake with my mother, we have a bunch of errands and appointments to go to, including a manicure and pedicure, and then we fly out Wednesday afternoon for Wisconsin. We will be in Wisconsin for my niece Jessica's wedding on Saturday and then fly home on Sunday. I'll have just enough time to go back to Piper's, check on my dogs, repack, and then head out Monday morning to go back to Salt Lake with Kolt's parents.

We fly out Tuesday the 17th for Pensacola, FL and will spend Tuesday and Wednesday there. Thursday we will drive up to Montgomery, AL for Kolt's pre graduation dinner. I'm am SO looking forward to it. I have a gorgeous new dress to wear and that will be when I get to see Kolt again!! After that we have graduation Friday morning and then the four of us will go back to Pensacola for the weekend. Then Kolt's parents will fly home and Kolt and I will drive to San Antonio. Monday morning we will inprocess, get our housing set up and then Tuesday fly back to Idaho for Thanksgiving with my family. Friday we will spend time with his family for a Christmas party and then we will hit the road with our dogs and all to Texas. THEN we will be done traveling.

Whew, that was a lot! Hope that makes sense to everyone, it took me weeks to work it all out, lol. So if you don't hear from me or us for a while, that's why!

Kolt is doing amazingly well at COT. He got a 92% on his first exam and a 91% on his physical. He's lost 8 lbs while he's been there and is in the top of his class. They had the last exam this morning, and after today are doing the physical stuff, ROPES course, obstacle course, leadership course. He's really happy that the academic portion of COT is over, it was a lot to take in, in a short amount of time. I have high hopes that he'll finish in the top 10% and be a distinguished graduate, but even if he's not, he did great and I'm proud of him!

This time apart has gone by amazingly fast and for that I am grateful. I have been able to lose 13lbs so far and will hopefully lose at least 3-5 more before I see him in 10 days. But no matter what I'm proud of myself for losing what I have and will continue to lose more until I'm back down to where I was when we met. It's a great feeling watching the pounds fall off and seeing the results of my hard work!

Day 18 of the Separation...half way there!

I thought that since today represents the half way point of our time apart, it would be good to do another update.

Kolt is doing very, very well at COT. He's not loving it, merely surviving it, but is doing well nevertheless. He passed his physical with flying colors, he's done well on the obstacle courses and puzzle courses, and passed the only test he's taken so far with a 95%. He's figure out a way of efficient note taking and is studying like crazy. His stress levels seem to have gone down because at this point he's pretty much got the swing of things figured out. He has two full weeks left and one partial week until he graduates, and believe me, he can't wait to be done.

I am doing really well. At the half way point I'm down 10.5 lbs. It should be more, but I finally allowed myself to cheat with Halloween and all. But today is back to the grind, and I'm going to push it really hard until I go to Wisconsin to give me a little leeway on that trip. Oh, I don't think I've mentioned that yet.

My oldest niece is getting married on November 14th and my mom and I will be going out to Wisconsin to be there for the event. I haven't been there in about 5 years and haven't seen a few of my nieces and nephews in that long either. It will be a lot of fun, and a wonderful break in the time that I'm waiting for Kolt. I fly out on the 11th and will come back on the 15th, just in time to leave on the 17th for Florida/Alabama!!! I have only 10 more days until I leave for the first trip and it's coming so fast!

We're getting really excited to finally settle down in San Antonio and be done with all of this. It will be really hard to leave our families, but this marks a new starting place in our lives together and it will be an incredible new adventure. If we can survive this last month of displacement and travel, the rest will just fall into place I think.

Day 9 of the Separation

I've been very fortunate to be able to talk to Kolt a few more times this week. He sounds much better than he did. He's getting about 4-5 hours of sleep per night, even with his roommate who snores. He told me that he's very frustrated with the leadership of his flight but is dealing with it. They assigned leaders based off of rank, and it turns out they are not the most qualified group of people. He says that everyone in his flight has a problem prioritizing and meetings that they have that should last 10-20 mins are lasting hours. They also have homework assignments that are due on the computer and half of the computers are down. Most everyone has at least one of the two in their rooms that work, and of course Kolt and his roommate have none. He's falling behind because of this, but he's used a fellow flightmember's computer and login to do the modules, but there's no way for him to prove that he did it himself. He has a great attitude despite all of this and actually believes they are creating this chaos on purpose in order to teach the airmen priorities and dealing with the stress. Kolt has a great perspective and is not letting the little things get him down, and I'm really proud of him for this.

Today was his first fitness evaluation. If he passes then he doesn't have to worry about it again throughout the rest of COT, if he fails he will retest Monday, if he fails then, then they give them more exercise to do and fitness instruction and will retest more towards the end of COT. He said he was placed in the top half of the whole group for his running time and is confident he will pass today.

He says the time is flying by and can't believe he's already done with his first week. He's grateful to be done with the beginning part, he says they are already lightening up on the yelling and once the airmen understand a concept, they get out of their face and relax.

Kolt said that when we take our little trip to Florida after graduation that he's probably only going to sleep, which is fine with me. He will be so exhausted that I can't blame him, he'll definitely earn that rest time! Plus, i know him and know he won't really sleep the whole time.

I'm doing well. I got moved out of our storage unit in Idaho this week and on Tuesday am moving out of our apartment in Salt Lake. I'll be happy to have that part of this experience over, but I do worry that I will have much less to do once I go up to my sister's and that the remaining weeks will drag by for me. I miss Kolt so much but have stayed pretty busy, if the time goes by any slower, I don't know how I'm going to make it! At least I have Halloween to look forward to next weekend with my sister and her kids, then it will be November! Just 2 1/2 more weeks after that.

My weight loss is coming along amazingly well! I'm down 6 lbs in 9 days and am ahead of schedule. I'm being really careful with my food in take and exercising hard. It seems to just be falling off and I'm so excited! If I can be 2 sizes smaller the next time he sees me, it will be the best thing ever!

That's all of the excitement for now. I'll check back in next week with more updates on Kolt's progress!

Day 6 of the Separation

Well, Kolt arrived in Alabama on Saturday safe and sound. He was able to meet some fellow officers and have dinner the night before COT began, unfortunately none of them are in his flight. (Flights are groups of 9-12 men and women, and everything they do while in COT is with their flight).

I was able to talk to him briefly last night and he sounded so drained and overwhelmed. I asked him what he did that day and he really couldn't tell me anything. He said there was a lot of yelling, but they didn't do any of the things we thought that they would. I was pretty worried about him because he just sounded so exhausted, and it was only the first day and he had gotten a good night's sleep prior. He told me he didn't have a roommate, but I guess last night he got one at midnight, no clue why so late. This roommate snores very badly and Kolt said he only got 2 hours of sleep and to top it off he forgot to buy ear plugs and wouldn't have a chance to go back to the store until the weekend. Poor guy.

We have been able to text a little and I've been grateful for any contact I have with him. I was expecting to hear nothing from him for this whole first week and he called last night and texted today! It helps a lot to be able to have even just one text from him, I'm such a baby! I don't know how wives did it even ten years ago before texting and cell phones. My Aunt Laura and all of the other wives from past generations are my heroes!

I am doing pretty well. I had a hard time saying good bye to him yesterday when I thought we wouldn't be able to talk at all, but now that I know I can get even one text I'm better. I've been eating well and working out like crazy and am right on track for my 20lbs in 5 weeks. At this point I'm down 3 lbs in 5 days, and very happy with that.

We got our storage unit moved today and that was a LONG day. They arrived 3 hours late and took much longer than I thought to get it loaded, but they were nice and I'm happy to have it done. Just one more move next Tuesday then I'm all done for now. Woohoo :)

Day 1 of the Separation

Well, the day has finally come. Kolt left for officer training this morning and is on his way to Alabama right now. His goal is to get to Sidney, NE today, then Kansas City, MO tomorrow, Memphis, TN by Saturday and then finally roll in to Montgomery, AL Sunday afternoon. He has to report for in processing at noon on Monday.

After all of the waiting and crying and more waiting, it seems like this snuck up on us and got here too fast! This last week has been a whirl wind of spending time with friends and family, packing, shopping, and going up to the base to get things ready for our move.

The plan is for me to stay in SLC and work Friday-Monday, then go up to Idaho and be there when our stuff is moved from storage on the 20th. That is the bulk of our stuff and we were so happy to find out they would move us out of two locations. Then I think I'll come back to SLC and work for one more week until they come on the 27th to move our things out of our apartment. After that I think I'll head up to Pocatello and stay the remainder of the 3 weeks with my sister, Piper. I may come down and stay with my friends Brandon and Lauren to work one more weekend in November, and to try and break up my weeks. I worry that once all of our things are moved and the dust has settled from that, the last few weeks will DRAG by for me :(

Kolt's parents and I were going to road trip out to Alabama a week before the graduation to bring out another one of our vehicles, but we decided to return it since it was leased under the Servicemember Civil Relief Act. It was really simple to do, make a phone call, send a fax and an email and 24 hours later our car was gone. We loved the Xterra but figured we wouldn't need an off roading SUV in Texas. So now we're down to 2 cars and a motorcycle, which will make everything a lot easier for us. Because of this though, now his parents and I are just going to fly down on the 18th of November. I was really looking forward to the trip, but this is what worked out best for all of us.

After COT graduation on the 20th, Kolt and I will make our way to SA and on the 23rd meet with the housing office to get our on base housing set up. Then we'll fly home, do Thanksgiving, try to see everyone we need to, then drive back to SA. While we will have on base housing, we've decided it will likely not meet our needs and so we will hopefully be buying a house not long after we get there. We've been looking online and have already seen so many that we like and that are SO affordable, it will be exciting and I'm really looking forward to owning a home again.

One of my goals while Kolt is gone is to lose 20 lbs. One of the JAG officers he talked to prior to leaving said he dropped 20 lbs while he was at COT and so it was my goal to lose more weight than Kolt while he's gone :) I understand that 20 lbs will be really hard to lose in 5 weeks, but I want to set the goal high to give me something to work hard for.

I will update the blog with Kolt's triumphs and blunders from his experience at COT as he tells them to me. I have a feeling that he won't call me very often and even when he does he won't talk very long because he'll have so much to do. I'm really excited for him and I know he'll enjoy the experience and will grow so much from it.