So... the answer is yes.

Yes, as it turns out, I am ready for deployment. Am I looking forward to it? No! And no, we don't know when or where Dan might be going, but he is away now and I'm ready for him to come home.

Let's see... today held more rain, more potty training... which is going well. We only had one accident today and he woke up from his nap dry! If we can get through the night dry tonight, we'll be in the home stretch.

Today we also made sugar cookies. Thanks to Terence and Wendy for the amazing cookie cutters. They were well used today. Tomorrow will be frosting them and, of course, eating just a few.

Today we also had a plumbing problem which I was able to fix, thankfully. It involved pulling up the flapper in the garage... I won't explain the rest. Then, after our cookie event, I noticed water damage in the living room. Keep in mind, we have a two story house so I have no idea where this water is coming from. I called the rental agent and added this to the list of things that have not gone well in the rain (office window is also leaking).

Finally, when I thought I could just sit down, post to the blog for Dan, and look at my knitting books... I realized there was a HUGE stream of ants in the living room. Dan is much better at cleaning this all up without poisoning anyone in the house.

Well, we think Dan will be home on Saturday. Off to mop the living room floor of ant carcasses.

If you have to go potty let Mommy know, ok?

Isaiah is eating a ding-dong cupcake frosted with whip cream. Why? Because he said he had to go potty and HE DID!! Granted, he hopped down from his high-chair, ran to the bathroom, then began to scream, "NO, I don't have to go potty!" He potty-ed anyway, thankfully and we celebrated with a cupcake party. And I totally had one too!!

We started this whole thing yesterday, and made some good progress. We had fewer accidents today, but I'm still waiting for Isaiah to suddenly stop what he's doing and GO POTTY! We'll get there. I imagine it will take a bit longer than I would like.

So, yesterday we were in all day and played trains (thanks Mom for the extra sets), watched the Backyardagains (thanks T+W for the lead and Suttons for the borrowed disks). Today we did splatter painting in the sunken tub in our bathroom and bubbles outside in the brief bit of dry weather we had. I'm actually quite proud of the splatter painting as it was a HUGE MESS!! Well contained and easily cleaned after Isaiah finally went to bed.

Now, off to bed early as I'll be up a little earlier to get Isaiah up to go potty. Trying to avoid him wetting the bed. And yes, there are toy rewards for that too!

Please continue to pray and wish us well!

Holy cats... what a weekend.

Our weekend started with a late-night play date with Katie and their puppy Abby while her mom and dad went to the RP Birthday Ball. (RPs are those that protect the chaplain in combat settings.) This is Isaiah and Katie watching a movie. It was a great start to the weekend.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Mom and Dads house. I had planed that we would just spend the day, but Sunday brought the opportunity to spend some time with my folks and Kurt and Rossy. So we stayed over, skipped the new member class, and spent the weekend with family.

Now, we're expecting 5 days and 17 inches of rain, so I was sure to leave in time to get home before dark... just in time to go our with friends down the street. Dinner at Stix with Susan and David (you can see him behind Susan in his Jets jersey - he was only a little self-righteous), then home to clean up the most nasty diaper EVER! (And we've had some nasty ones...)

I am so grateful for family and friends who love me and spend time with me during this short time that Dan is in the field. Thank you.

Now, for those of you who pray, please start as Isaiah and I are taking advantages of the dreadful weather, staying in, and learning to use the potty! We hope that the next sunny day brings us a big-boy in big-boy pants!! (And again, you'll probably get more info on that then you'd like.)

Wow... it's like a new tooth!

(The picture is of Isaiah and I eating lunch at Rubios in Carlsbad.)

The excitement of the day was a trip to the dentist for me. I had 2 crowns placed and an unexpected filling in one of my front teeth. It was little little one, called a peg lateral... so, after 36 years of having a funny little tooth I now have a regular sized tooth. It looks great, but still feels a bit weird. She just filled it in with some of the filling compound, so it was also a lot less involved than I had expected.

With me at the dentist, Isaiah gets to go to "school" (childcare on base). He had a blast. Tomorrow I'll find out where he is on the waiting list of the 2 year class. It's amazing to watch him learn, so if he's not close to the top of the list on base, I think I'll start looking at options at our church.

I also got to hear from Dan today. He's doing well and hoping to get out into the field to visit his guys a little this weekend and next week. We're also doing well, but we do miss him. Yesterday was the day it finally happened. Isaiah woke up asking for Daddy and I had to explain that he was still training in the mountians. He took it ok, but it's not the best way to start the day. Thankfully he recovered well.

We're still planning on potty-training next week. For those of you who pray, please do - for Isaiah to learn quick and or me to have a perfectly positive attitude the whole time. I'll keep you all posted. (I'm sure you're dying to know.)

Mommy, Mommy... I am awake now.

A few pictures from Glenn and May's visit.

Glenn and Isaiah









A real seal at the beach









Isaiah letting his balloon
dinosaur drink his milk
'Every morning Isaiah wakes up calling for Daddy. He responds rather well when I tell him that Dan is at work or sleeping in or whatever. Dan gets him up on the days when he's home, but most days it's me. I figured I'd get to spend these 3 weeks reminding Isaiah every morning that "Daddy is on training in the mountains." Not today!!! We talk about Daddy, Isaiah hasn't forgotten him at all, but I get a little more love these days and I'm very greatful.

Other than that, a rather ordinary day. Bought a fancy outfit for a fancy dinner at the end of the month, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and I let him crawl around the tubes like Dad does... without a shadow, the a nap and more time at the park. The most exciting thing was that Shadow the cat decided he wanted to sleep under Isaiah's bed tonight and that did not make him happy. We had to cocks the cat out before Isaiah would go to sleep. :-)

My plans for the evening: watching Fridge (a really bad idea while home alone) and reading more about potty training. The current plan is to start that next Monday. I know, I'm insane.

A day with family...

Glenn and May came out to spend the day with us. They got here last night and brought Glenn's favorite game, Monopoly City. He also won. :-)

After a late night we all sleped in a bit, including Isaiah, and got up for some very yummy Berg Baked French Toast. (Mmmmmmmm) Then, after watching a dozen eposdoes of The Office, we headed to Ruby's on the pear in Oceanside. The walk out was wonderful! We saw and actual Sea Lion wandering around the beach. - May got the best shots of this and I'll post on soon. The service was TERIBLE! The food was ok. Oddly, the best part of our visit was a balloon animal maker dude who made Isaiah a dinosaur. So amazing!

We got home at about 3:30 and they left soon after. Isaiah went down for a little nap then off to worship tonight. Isaiah did such a WONDERFUL job in church, it was so amazing I let him run around upstairs after worship for nearly 10 minutes. AND, as the sermon was about baptism, we went up to check out the font after. He thought it would be great to get baptised like Jesus.

A seal, family, and happy church. A good day made a million times better by an unexpected phone call from Dan. He is well. We miss him bunches!

Dan Away...

Today we brought lunch to Dan and Jordan, his RP, and watched him move his very heavy gear to the piles near where the buses would be. He left today at about 6:30p for 18 days in the mountains of Nevada. Cold weather training. Now, it will be about 30 degrees at night and 50 during the day. For someone who's lived in the Midwest, the cold isn't going to be much a problem. It will be interesting to see what the long-term California kids do.

It will also be interesting to see how Isaiah does. He had a hard time getting to sleep for his nap today and as I type (9pm) he's still tossing around a bit. He's doing pretty good though. The picture here is a "zip-rope" I rigged up. If you look closely, you can see his little lego dude (the Motorcycle guy from David and Susan) hanging by his left arm. He ran him back-and-forth for 30 minutes.

I'm doing ok too. I haven't been alone in the house since before Isaiah was born. I'm trying to remember all the things I told Joanna before Gregg left. Granted, Dan will be back far sooner.

And one more thing... Isaiah just called down asking for a drink. I agreed and sang him a song we've not sung at night before: Holiness. I started singing and he stoped be because he wanted me to sing the "Brokenness" verse. It's so amazing to be his mom. More tomorrow.

The New Year

Dan had a few days off so we traveled North to visit the Bergs. Kim and I have been friends forever and it was wonderful to finally get a chance to visit from the same state!

It was great to watch the girls play with him. He has a blast and continue to talk about them. "Can Haily come over today?" - very cute!

He also sang his ABCs on the way home all the way to the letter S. If you're his parents, it's very impressive.

Dan travels for 3 weeks starting Thursday, so we're using this as a dry-run for his upcoming deployment. It should be a fun time of potty training and bonding. I'll keep you posted.