*Said in a Jeff Foxworthy voice*

"You might be a BAMA WIFE if you see "his" car out in town and cry because SOON it could be him!"

Today I was driving to Target and looked in my rear view mirror like you're supposed to every 8 seconds and there it was...Josh's blue Kia Rio...military stickers and all...only it wasn't Josh's car...obviously...I started crying.

I didn't cry because I was sad, but because soon it very possibly COULD be him! I'm so excited about the fact that he'll be coming home soon. I can't wait to be pierside and see him come off the boat to meet his son for the first time. Hell, even writing that I'm tearing up. I'm so excited for it! I can't believe it's almost here...almost time!

I'm still sad that Josh will have missed 8 weeks of his son's life...correction, the FIRST 8 weeks of his life, but I knew before I married him it could happen. It's not so much that I needed the help or anything, but so much has happened to him in 8 weeks...so much has changed. I wish he could've at least seen and hugged him within the first 2 weeks. Had they not been extended in the beginning (they went out 2-3 weeks early) he would've been here for the birth of his son. He would've left like the day after, but he would've been here in the very least.

Speaking of his son, he's ready to eat again. Then hopefully he'll go to bed for the night. He's been staying up really late the past couple nights. Could be the cold, could be the fact that the Similac he's had has been recalled because of possible insect parts and larvae in it. Ugh...that's a whole other blog and rant though!

Good night y'all!

Come Home Soon

The song by SHeDaisy has been going through my head the last couple weeks. Underway is almost done, he will be home soon. These last few weeks will be going by so slow, but there are only a few weeks left, which makes my heart jump for joy and sing praises to God that they aren't extended longer than they already have been (so far)!

This underway has gone by fairly fast since Alaric's birth. It has only slowed down the last few days. I have been keeping myself busy as much as humanly possible. I go for walks at the mall at least every other day, I take drives and have started exploring the town I moved to a year ago, I go to Friday morning coffee with the BAMA ladies, Wednesday morning Play Group have started back up, Church on Sundays or Mondays depending on how late Cara has slept in until...the list goes on. Caralyn and Alaric keep me plenty busy too!

Caralyn is doing so well with Alaric. I'm so proud of her! She is very helpful, a mini mommy. She carries around her baby doll a lot now too. If mommy has brother, she has baby. She also LOVES holding Alaric! She does really well for not even being 2! She helps pick out his clothes too. We've started working on ABC's, 123's and colors. She's doing pretty good but she isn't saying anything by herself yet. She doesn't really want to so I'm not rushing her. She'll do it in her own time. She loves reading though! She has me reading to her almost all day every day...anytime I'm sitting she's bringing me books. I LOVE it! I catch her sitting on her little couch reading to herself a lot now too. It's so cute!

Alaric...well, he's growing so much so fast. I can't believe he's already 6 weeks old. He's holding his head up most of the time already and has been since he was just hours old. I can't wait for daddy to meet him! I'm so anxious and excited for it to happen! I can't wait to see Josh's reaction to the realization that he actually has a son now. It's going to be priceless. Josh will be happy that he's in his own bed fort he most part already too. The only time he's in bed with me is when he's up for too many hours and I'm exhausted and need sleep. He falls asleep easier in bed with me and Cara usually.

As for me...I'm great. I'm still going strong on the homefront for Josh and the kids. I'm loving being a mom to two kids. I'm ready to do it again and have a third. I can't wait until I can start bugging Josh to have another baby. I know I have to wait until at least August though. Josh wants to wait 2-3 years though. We'll see where the compromise leads us...and what God's plans really are.

I have to end this here for now. My netbook is about to die on me since I've been on it much of the night. I also have to get ready to leave anyway since I'm meeting someone to drop off a step stool for their toddler (I have 3...I don't need 3...) I'll hopefully be writing a little more often now that Alaric is napping well in his crib and Caralyn lets me get on the computer a little more often now for the most part.

Later all!

Happy Birthday!

Though my husband is being a hero and is under the water until later this month or early next month, I must acknowledge his birthday today.

28 years ago my wonderful mother in law brought into this world the love of my life. I will be forever grateful for her going through that pregnancy and raising him by herself for the first couple of years of his life.

I am grateful for his adopted dad for being there for him and helping to raise him even though he wasn't biologically his.

I am grateful for his biological dad being there for us the last few years.

I am grateful for his step dad for helping us when we need it, even when he can't really afford to help us. I'm sure knowing we will pay him back as fast as humanly possible helps with that effort.

I am grateful for his step mom for being so wonderful to us and being impartial and supportive of everything and also for making me feel comfortable in her home when I felt shunned by almost the whole family.

I am grateful for his Grandma and Papa for taking him in during high school and helping to raise such a wonderful man.

I am grateful for his Grandpa Dorcey for always being there for us, even me, whenever we need him, even if it's just to talk or complain.

I am grateful for his Grandma J, Grandpa Tucker, Grandma Lenore and Grandma Tucker. I don't know them well, but they have certainly welcomed me into the family with no hesitation or questions asked.

Joshua Michael Luplow, you have given me two wonderful kids (so far) of my own, loved me for who I am even with my faults and quirks, stood up for me in rough times, stood by me through hard decisions and hard times, I will never be able to express how much I truly love you and appreciate you and what you do for me.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday under the water. I can not wait for your safe return so we can celebrate this wonderful day together. I love you and miss you very much! Caralyn misses you more than anything in this world. And I'm sure Alaric can't wait to meet his daddy!

Love you and miss you,
Yours always and forevermore,
Stevie

Not to complain or anything...

But I'm so sick of not having alone time to do things I need to do!

I want to take a long relaxing shower and actually have time to shave! I want to be able to clean my room without Caralyn following behind me and destroying it again as soon as I finish. Same thing for the dining and living rooms. I want to cook without hearing Caralyn scream bloody murder for not being able to be in the kitchen with me. I want to be online for more than just a few moments at a time to email Josh a good long email letting him know how everything really is around here and how much I miss and love him. I want to lay on the couch and maybe take a nap and relieve some of this pain I'm in from Alaric being in a weird position. I would like to go to the hospital to be checked out to make sure the pain is normal and maybe get on some new meds so I can be out of pain for the majority of the day since Tylenol isn't doing anything for me.

These things won't happen anytime soon and I know it, but it would be nice. Josh did so much for me while he was home the last few months that I feel so overwhelmed with exhaustion. Just taking a shower alone would be nice. I can deal with the rest really (other than the hospital stuff since I can't deal with Cara while being monitored). The only bad part of Josh being so helpful is that he worried so much about how I would do alone that he put me into pre-term labor for a couple weeks before he left. I have only had a little labor since he left which is nice...but now I don't know if because of the pre-term labor I'm not feeling the contractions as hard as I should. I have to wait for my water to break again.

Anyway, just a little complaint blog even though I hate complaining when Josh is gone. It's not that I can't handle him being away, it's just the end of pregnancy hormones getting to me really. I'm always frustrated at the end...it's just how I am I guess. Worse this time because of how he is positioned and because I have a toddler already to drive me nuts. LoL!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Stevie

Horton-Schroeder Wedding

This evening is my cousin's wedding. She is going from a Dr. Seuss character to a Peanuts character. These guys definitely fit the bill for the comedy of it. My family (well her family I guess) is hilarious. Her dad is a comedian and an Elvis impersonator. He is wonderful at what he does in the professional world too. The rest is for fun, but man oh man, if I don't shake my son out from laughing tonight, I will be amazed! Chris is a pretty funny guy too, I don't know his family, just him. He's a good guy. I'm glad Jess has found him. If he ever hurts her, I will kill him, though I know the line is probably extremely long for that.

I can not believe that a year ago I was talking about the wedding and looking forward to spending their wedding evening with my wonderful husband and daughter. Things surely change in a year. Tonight I will be spending time with my daughter and enjoying their wedding immensely but I will have to send pictures to my husband so he can live it through me. This is day 5 of an up to 15 week underway. He had to leave 3 weeks early. I'm not complaining but it definitely sucks. Josh and I haven't been to a wedding together since our own almost 5 years ago. He loves this part of my family like crazy too so he's rather sad. I think he's mainly sad that he doesn't get to pick on my cousin Meghan relentlessly. He misses being able to be himself around someone other than me. Meghan is the perfect target and she fires them back which he loves even more! They can play off each other for hours, and of course big brother Tim loves it too.

I don't know what I'm more excited for...seeing Jess get married to Chris or seeing the whole family at once. I haven't been up to Sequim since Thanksgiving so I haven't seen Jess, Chris, Jenn, Aunt Lynn, Uncle Guy, Uncle Chuck, Aunt Boots, Aunt Laura and Uncle Bill in a LONG time. It's been even longer for Aunt Margie, Tim and Meghan...and I'm FINALLY meeting Uncle Terry for the first time (they live in Colorado). And yet longer for Aunt Sue, Uncle Len, Andrew and Adam, though I've seen Andrew once more than the rest of them since he came out when Cara was younger (they live in Illinois). I don't know if there are more people for me to meet or not. I think my cousins Doug and Heather may be coming out with their parents, if they are, I haven't seen them since the summer after 3rd grade. CRAZY!

After today, my little boy can come anytime he wants and I'll be happy. I just do NOT want to miss this wedding and family time. Cara and I have mostly matching dresses to wear. Hers is a block print while mine isn't. Hers has a Navy Blue in it and mine doesn't, but we will look good together for sure. Right now she's sleeping so peaceful that I have to continuously look behind me to see her precious face. I can not wait to meet her brother and have two babies to do this to. Only a month and 2 days until I'm due...how that adds up to 4 weeks and 6 days technically I do not know, but that's what it is. I turned 35 weeks yesterday.

I was having pre-term labor every day for at least 6 hours for a month before Josh left, but now that he's gone and the stress level is lower, I haven't been in labor at all. 4 days of no labor...it's amazing! I haven't rested this well in a long time. I hope the stress of getting to Tacoma and everything doesn't put me over the edge for labor today. I refuse to go to the hospital unless my water breaks right now though. I won't even time my contractions unless it gets too horribly bad. Luckily I will have family around if something does happen today! Cara will be in wonderful hands.

Anyway, need to go email Josh and get directions to the wedding location...a rooftop in Tacoma at 5PM...it's going to be amazing! This family does nothing half assed! That's for sure!

My cousin's wife hits it on the nose again...

"wonders why some people can't get over themselves long enough to see how their actions hurt and affect others. Ugh! Praying for eyes to be opened and hearts turned to God."

This was my cousin Eric's wife Stacy's status update on facebook today. I love how she hits what I'm feeling on the head so many times. This is a big reason why I love her. Not only did she marry one of my favorite cousins, she is so much like me in the way we feel about many subjects.

Two family members have me feeling this way, four if you count their spouses also. Not everything has been directed at me and my little family, but my in-laws are my family also, and a lot has been directed at them. It hurts me how little these people care about their family members. Family is the most important thing in life...if you can't count on them and get over petty things with them, you have nothing.

Call your family, whether you're in good with them or are having problems with them, and tell them you love them no matter what happens. Start getting over stupid and petty things and move on with life.

I hate that my son will not know 5 people in his family...4 aunts/uncles and 1 cousin (so far). It's sad. I hate that my daughter has met 3 of the aunts/uncles but will never truly know them. I hate that I will never be able to meet one of the uncles and my nephew. I hate that Josh will never meet his brother in law, nephew and sister in law...and also will probably never be "allowed" to talk to his brother again. It's sad especially for him because he has had nothing to do with any of the bullshit that happened (and that I apologized for yet am still being treated like shit for). He's being punished for being married to me. That is shallow in my eyes. I can't even mention his brother's name without tears almost welling up in his eyes. He misses his brother so much but knows there's nothing more he can do. He's tried so very hard to be in contact with him and his brother just doesn't want anything to do with him because I'm his wife. It's sad...very very sad.

Anyway...That's really all I have time for. I need to go lay down with my beautiful daughter and hope to God these contractions stop soon. I'm sick of Braxton-Hicks Contractions...but alas I have 9 more weeks of them to go through.

Tornadoes

So far, 5 fatalities according to The Toledo Blade. The roof of the water park in Holiday Inn Express, Dundee was torn to shreds. I have a friend that works in that hotel. I hope he's okay...he's a new dad.

I have no clue what the extent of damage is. I have no clue who those 5 fatalities are...any friends? Family? I hope not.

I don't even know how many places were really hit during the storms yesterday...I have to call my parents soon. I have to call my in-laws to make sure they're okay. I know cell reception is down to almost nothing in a lot of areas of Monroe County. I've heard the hardest hit area was Dundee, but that doesn't mean some other places were hit.

I wonder how my Aunt in Milan is doing...she has MS so she wouldn't really be able to get to her basement. I'll have to call her too. So many people I need to call to make sure they're okay. My ex boyfriend's parents still live in Dundee near the worst damage...need to get ahold of him to make sure they're okay.

I hate tornadoes. I know it's a part of life and earth and stuff...but still...they suck. I almost died in one when I was little. I know some people wish I had, but I know plenty of others that are thankful I am still alive, including my family. I am terrified of tornadoes for that reason though...and now bad ones have destroyed a lot of lives of people I used to live near...it sucks.

If you haven't lately, call your family and friends and tell them you love them. If you're on the outs, let this natural disaster that could've harmed them be your way back on the in...you never know, you could regret not being there if something happened.