Top 10

So I found this list on another friend's blog about being a Military Spouse. I couldn't help but feel the need to repost it with a little extra from me.

Top 10 List of Military Spouse Quotes

10) If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them!

(AMEN!!! You can say all you about your feelings on the war, politics, or whatever, but if you can't stand behind the men and women who fight EVERY day to protect your right to RUN your mouth you are more then welcome to stand in front of them.)

9) My husband risks his life so you can run your mouth.

(REFER BACK TO #10)

8) If the military wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.

(OMGosh, I have only been a military spouse for a year and a half I can not tell how many times I have said this to myself. They try but let's face it there's a reason that saying goes Mission ALWAYS!)

7) Don’t confuse your rank with my authority.

(I think it speaks for itself?)

6) Prosper where you’re planted.

(Every assignment is what you make it. Our first assignment to Columbus taught us that quick. It wasn't an ideal location by any means but we had a wonderful time with all the amazing people we met there.)

5) The military is my husband's mistress and sometimes that b*tch gets all the attention.

(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!! SOOOOOOOO TRUE!!!)

4) Home is where the military sends you.

(Refer back to #6)

3) Sexually deprived for your freedom.
(ONCE AGAIN SO TRUE!!! There is a reason that Ft. Carson is called a Baby Factory. Hello boys have been gone 12 months what do you think it gonna happen when they get home. Someone asked me why I want to drive all the way out there to have Grace. Well because this is what they do! They are the largest Labor & Delivery in the Springs for a reason!!)

2) Live each day like he deploys tomorrow.

(Because he very well can in most cases.)

1) You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have.

(This quote got me though this summer. Those nights where I just felt like crawling into a ball and saying FORGET IT ALL! I don't care if my stuff gets packed or if we ever get to Colorado. As a military spouse you learn quickly you just got to do what you got to do. Oh you just had a baby congratulations here is a 6 month deployment for ya, Oh your 5 months pregnant and moving across country? Well we are gonna send your husband away for the 2 months before you move have fun handling things at home. OH you and your husband are both in the military GREAT we need you across the country from one another. It's just life. It's our life. We live it EVERYDAY and YES it's choice we made. A choice I would make again and again because I love my military man!)

It's Been Awhile

I know....I know...I know I haven't posted in FOREVER! Things have been REALLY crazy.

Steve and I are (for the most part) settling into routine here in Colorado. We both agree on one thing We LOVE it here. It's funny because for the year of UPT I had kind of accepted the fact that we were more then likely going to end up in Nebraska or staying there in Mississippi. Getting Colorado was a huge shock for both us but in the end we know that God had a reason for sending us here. Steve is no longer training on his plane the C-21. In fact he just got back from flying his first mission (an over night mission at that) today. He was all excited because he got to bring home a 4 star general who gave him their special commander coin. He flies his next mission on Sunday which also happens to be an over nighter. I am not excited about the over nights because the dogs are always on HIGH alert when Steve's not home and they end up waking me up multiple times during the night. Hopefully when they get a little more use to the house it will clam them down.

As for Grace and I we are doing well. I still can't do too much without getting tired or having really bad pain, but I guess I can't really complain. I am sure I will be plenty busy when she finally gets here so I should enjoy being lazy now. I can tell you one thing I am definitely taking advantage of now...SLEEP!! In fact I am pretty sure I sleep too much! I usually go to bed between 11-12 and sleep till oh I don't know 1030 the next morning. I know LAZY but I am just racking it in now because I know in 3 months it will all be over. Yes, that's right I said 3 months. I hit 29 weeks on Monday! So ready to meet our little girl, but I can definitely another 11 weeks she needs a little more baking.

Welp, that's pretty much all I can think of right now. My brain is kind of shut off because it's close to 11 and my bedtime. So I promise to TRY keyword TRY to post more updates.

Gracie Update!!

So today I met my midwife for the rest of the pregnancy, Steve and I agree that she is AWESOME. I was a little worried about the whole midwife thing. I am not gonna lie when I first heard the word a lady in a long colorful skirt and hemp sandals popped into my head. McCormick is anything but! She spent 25 years as a labor and delivery nurse practitioner following her husband around in the Army and has at least another 15 years as a midwife. She knows exactly what she is talking about and is not afraid to tell you like it is.

I had two main concerns today that I wanted to talk about when I went it to the appointment. The first was that at my last ultrasound showed Gracie was measuring smaller then she should be and second is the intense pain/contractions I have been having. I brought up the contractions first because they were so bad on friday that I actually called L&D after hours just to ask if it was normal. Her first question was "How much water are you drinking?" my response "I get at least a gallon down a day. I have really been trying for the two gallons, but I just...." "WHAT? That's bullshit! I am sorry but what Idiot told you to drink two gallons a day? You'd spend the WHOLE day in the bathroom." "Well the RN in L&D when I called on friday." "No honey, one gallon is more then enough water. And don't feel bad if you can't get that down a day just get as close as possible." Then we started talking about other things like Gracie measuring small. Her answer..."Honey, the error of margin on an ultrasound is anywhere from one to two weeks She is right in there, plus your stomach is measuring perfectly at 25.5 cm for 25 wks. She is not small." This was a huge relief, because my ob had made it seem like she was measuring way behind what she should be.

So after we had the check up we went next-door to her office to talk some more while she filled out paperwork. On the way there I had another contraction so it brought the subject back up. "Well it's definitely not dehydration, but does anything seem to make them go away?" "Yea, I never have them if I am sitting or lying down." "Well then honey you should be sitting or lying down." Now me thinking she doesn't get the extend of what I am trying to say answers back "but, It's like I can't stand for more then 10 minutes at a time without it starting." "Well then....Don't Stand for more then 10 minutes at a time. Would you rather spend all day on your butt and carry a healthy girl to term or get things done around the house and spend months in NICU???" "Well when you put it like that..." "Then I guess you know what you got to do?" So looks like Steve will be learning to do a lot more housework! LOL. Which probably means my house will not get done until mom gets here in December. And by done I mean taken out of boxes lol. It will all be worth in the end though when Gracie is healthy!

No Sleep Tonight....I'm gonna get No SLEEP TONIGHT!!!

I have a feeling....a very strong feeling that I will not be getting ANY sleep tonight. Why? Because of two reasons.

#1 - Our house has a runaway from The Colorado Springs International Airport in it's backyard. No I am serious it is IN MY BACKYARD. Like I could a stone and hit it and if you have EVER seen me throw anything you know that means it's REALLY REALLY Close. Apparently they have shut down the west (I don't know the name for it so I call it that cause it's to the west) runway for the evening so all planes are being directed to the east runway (locate behind my house). Before anyone tells me "You'll get use to the noise" let me paint the picture for you. As the plane comes into land you hear it coming no big we have all heard planes fly over head. Hell in Columbus we lived RIGHT under the pattern so airplanes flying over head does not bother me ONE bit. In fact it's kind of soothing. As the plane gets closer to the run away though it gets louder.....like window shaking louder. This last anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute depending on the size of the plane. Considering that the run way is shared with the Air Force base we get some pretty big planes on there like today alone we had 2 C-17s. Since we have been here I have seen countless C-17s, two C-5s, tons of C-130s, and one KC-10 land in my backyard, which I admit is pretty cool. BUT not tonight! So, how do I know this is going to add to my NO sleep tonight theory because in the 13 minutes it took to write the above paragraph two planes have landed. Bringing tonights total to 17 planes since 7:30(ish)pm. I didn't know that airport was that busy!!!

#2- My darling, sweet, innocent CHILD! Grace is apparently a night owl, which wouldn't be so bad except she is also a morning dove. She gets up without fail somewhere between 5-7 am dances for about an hour and then she falls back to sleep I guess. Leaving me wide awake and praying to fall back asleep for just 20 minutes. She does dance randomly though out the day but to the extend that she does in the morning and evening. Then about 1030-1130 at night she goes at it again. Dancing away and tickling the crad out of mommy. Making it very hard to fall asleep . So I end up passing the sleep window and my insomnia kicks in. I drift in and out of sleep for rest of the night until 5 am when she is ready to get back up. Little girl already has me up half the night and she's not even here yet. AND yes, as I am writing this she happily kicking and punching at the same time. However, if there is any good reason NOT to get sleep it is because of her so this reason does not brother me one bit. I am just stating it as a reason lol.

So I guess I better go lay down and TRY to sleep but mainly I just have a feeling I will lay there talking to Grace and keeping Steve up! :-)

My Big Girl Present

You know you have grown up when you get excited over a vacuum. Our house in Columbus had hardwood floors so we had very little need for a vacuum. I got by just fine with a swiffer vac and wet jet. We did however buy a small (pink) Eureka vacuum because it was on sale for 49.99 at Wal-Mart and I thought it would be a lot easier then beating out the area rugs we had. After opening the box I knew it was a mistake because I had to put the majority of it together. Apparently I didn't do something right because just about a month after we got it it stopped working. It would suck up dog hair, dirt, and other stuff and shoot it right back out the back. Basically just blowing the stuff all over the floor causing me to have to go back over it with a broom and dust pan. So as I was going though the house before the move I found it locked away in the hall closet where it had been for about 8 months. Definitely was not wasting the time to get that to Colorado, so I chucked on the curb and the next day it was gone. I don't know weather the trash man took or some poor soul garbed it thinking they could fix it.

When we moved into our house here I found that the entire upstairs is carpeted....umm that's gonna be a problem. Guess it's time to get a real vacuum. Tonight Steve came home and asked if I wanted to go look at them just to see what kind of price range we were talking. When we found the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser I knew I was in LOVE! Steve told me to just go ahead and get it since we have already been in the house two weeks and let's face it Louie sheds like mad! I just took it out of the box and did a tiny corner of the house and as I said I am in love! Who saids you need to spend $400 on a good vacuum for pet hair. This thing was under $200 and it works AMAZING!!! Steve just laughed as he watched me basically dance around as I vacuumed the rest of the living room. Then it hit me....I am going GAGA over a VACUUM! When did life get like this?? When did I start to get excited over things like vacuums or the BX having Method cleaning products! When did I grow up?

Moving Sucks

I know I have been terrible about updating you all on the Bostwick's journey to Colorful Colorado! The reason being is that so many things have gone wrong I just haven't been in the mood to explain the whole thing. That being said....We have FINALLY made it! Colorado is beautiful! So far I love everything about this state, even the afternoon rain showers. We have the most amazing view from the front of our house of Pikes Peak and just waking up to that every morning makes me happy. Steve is still in the process of inprocessing. Gracie and I have our first doctors appointment here on Thursday. Turns out that our little Air Force Brat will be born on an Army Base just like her mommy. So be looking out for an update sometime on friday about how she is doing. As far as getting settle goes...that's been well crazy. The movers came with "our stuff" on Tuesday. Not only where they missing a good chunk of it, but most of the furniture they did bring is broken. Apparently they took it upon themselves to dissemble some of our furniture when they put it in storage and lost a bunch of screws, nails, and wooden pegs to put it all back together. What pisses me off is that every item was assembled when it left our house in Columbus. So now we get to deal with the moving company about what they owe us because the stuff is pretty much useless at this point. Fun Times Right?? I guess that's pretty much it for now. I am sure I will be writing blog later about our Casa Bonita adventure last night but for now it's Grace and mine nap time! :-)

Patriotic Women Bake Cookies

So I read this today and it made me laugh. I am sure any of you Columbus AFB ladies know why.

Patriotic Women Bake Cookies

By Denise J. Hunnell

"You want me to do WHAT?!?!? Stay home and bake cookies???" That could have been me twenty years ago. I was a thoroughly modern woman. Newly married to an air force pilot, I was not going to be shackled by outdated images of the proper officer's wife. I was not going to be one of those squadron wives who scurried around making wonderful home-baked goodies for the "cookie bus" during combat exerises. I scoffed at the squadron commander's wife who exhorted us to keep cookie dough in the freezer so we would be ready to go whenever the exercise kicked off. How silly!! Our husbands are training to go to war. They don't care about chocolate chips and snicker-doodles!!

Now look at me: Twenty years later, I am the commander's wife and I have my apron on. I am rolling out sugar cookies for the airmen who will be in the dorms for the holidays. Other wives are churning out chocolate-chip cookies to send with deploying troops. I've got cookie dough in my freezer! Why do military wives bake cookies? After twenty years I understand.

When I married my husband, I accepted his choice to be an air force pilot, but that was his job, not mine. Over the years, I have learned that his choice is more than a job. It is a mission. I have watched as military careers ended when a spouse could not accept the demands of he mission. I have watched as marriages ended when a soldier could not give up the mission. Therefore, I have embraced the mission in my own way.

I cannot fly or fix planes. I don't carry a weapon. But I can volunteer my hands and heart to those who do. And I can bake cookies. They are baked with flour, sugar, butter, and a lot of prayers. I can only hope that each soldier finds some comfort in my culinary creation. I pray they feel the respect and support of my heart added to the recipe. Their sacrifice for America has inspired in me a reverence for America. Their willingness to defend this nation has taught me that this is a nation worth defending.

Yes, I am still a modern woman. Bust, now I am a patriotic woman. And I bake cookies!

Amen Sister!!!!