Ah, Military Moves....

....they aren't as fun as you might think.....

We got a call from the housing office in Jacksonville today letting us know that they had given our house to another family who had an exceptional family member and therefore trumped us and our desire to live on base.  Luckily they offered us the house next door but couldn't tell us for sure when we'll be able to move in-maybe a week later, maybe September.....to that I just say...fantastic.....

I've got to come up with a new plan for what to do in the meantime and I guess we'll just put our things into storage in Florida until we have a home to deliver them to which I really don't want to do because it's always a hassle to get your household goods back out of storage.  If there's one thing I've learned from all of these moves is that you just have to be flexible and learn to roll with all of the....hmmm....I'll be positive and just call them.....challenges....or maybe opportunities to practice patience.....


In the more exciting moving news category we had an amazing wheeling and dealing day today.

I sold our playset on Craigslist about an hour after I posted it for exactly what I paid for it two years ago (also on Craigslist)--of course we ended up with a little less than that as my tender-hearted husband knocked $20 off the price telling me that that dad needed it more than we did :)

We also bought our very first washer and dryer at a local shop that sells GE appliances.  The owner (who was helping us) was wonderful and helped us pick out exactly what we needed--the same set he and his wife has which funnily enough was not the fancy set you'd imagine the owner of an appliance store owning but the just plain-ol'-regular set.  He also congratulated us for paying in cash--I believe Chris actually got a "good boy!"  We got a great deal, supported a local business, and they're delivering the appliances in the boxes so they'll be well protected during the move and we'll have two giant boxes for the boys to play with once we arrive--a win win win all around.

David did his part to help us get a good deal by tugging on the owner's sleeve, pointing at his rather rotund stomach and saying:

"Excuse me, excuse me.  You have a really big belly."

Luckily he had a great sense of humor and just laughed.  I didn't know what to do so I took a cue from him and gave my own nervous/awkward laugh and tried to change the subject.  We found out later that the man was not only the owner of the appliance store but also the mayor--so to recap, David called the mayor of our little city fat and the lovely mayor responded by giving him lollypops and bottles of water.

I love not buying things from big box stores--so many more interesting things happen when you check out what the locals have to offer.

PS.  We did give David a lecture when we got home about how it's not nice to tell people that they have large bellies.  I'm sure he's taken it to heart and will never embarrass us in public again....he's easy to teach like that :)

More Ultrasounds....

Well, I guess the perk of having doctors that feel sorry for you is that you get extra ultrasounds.  

Someone wants to say hi......

.....you'll have to excuse the semi-creepy 3-D face.....

I took a dear friend with me this time since Chris was taking the bar in NC, you know, just in case.  Happily it turned out that everything is fine, this little guy's exactly as big as he's supposed to be, and he danced through the whole ultrasound.

So, I guess I've officially made it into my second trimester but I can't seem to breathe that second trimester sigh of relief, maybe I'll have more of a third trimester sigh of relief this time......

Thunderstorming

We've been having a rash of thunderstorms here and while I think they are amazing, the boys are of a different opinion......take for example this conversation David and I shared after nap time......

Me:  "Isn't this rain beautiful!  I wonder if God knew we were hot and sent it down to cool us off?"

David, looking down and pointing an accusatory finger at his own stomach (you know, because I told him God lives in his heart and apparently we need to revisit that particular lesson):  "God, you put out this rain.  It is not beautiful. And I am not hot!"  


Of course the boys are of another opinion entirely once the rain clears and all that's left are excellent jumping puddles.....

And of course it wouldn't be a Reintjes adventure if Henry didn't fall in and get completely soaked......

or if *rocks* (i.e. broken off pieces of asphalt) weren't collected and subsequently thrown so as to see who could make the biggest splash.....

I managed to convince them that we only needed to bring back two of the *rocks* as opposed to the four David was attempting to carry in his shirt......They're currently drying off on our back porch, for some reason I didn't think we needed to bring all of our nature treasures up to the bath with us once we got home.......mommies can be so unfair....

Blueberries are for Licking....

The boys love popsicles....I know, you're shocked by this amazing revelation into the minds of my children....well I finally broke down and bought the popsicle mold I've been eyeing since last summer and the boys and I got to work. Apparently anything frozen in popsicle form counts as a popsicle to them so our first few batches were just smoothies that I froze in the molds which have the bonus of being healthy (unlike the Dora popsicles David begs for every time we go to the commissary).

Then we got fancy.....and in our house fancy popsicles are eaten on the patio....while riding tricycles......

I think we've found our new favorite summer pastime......

Seven Years and Four Babies.....

Yesterday was our anniversary. That's right, seven years ago Chris and I were saying our I dos and, in retrospect, I don't think we had any idea exactly what we were getting ourselves into--what idealistic newlyweds do?  The moves, the deployments, the babies, the losses--I could never have imagined the storms we would face or the graces we would receive to stand against them, or maybe more accurately to hold each other up through them.  Marriage transforms you into a better person--if you let it--and that transformation can be very painful.  It's not easy to put someone else's needs ahead of your own day in and day out.   It's not easy to love someone more than you love yourself--that takes real work--and much prayer.  Lucky for me I'm married to the most wonderful husband I could ever have imagined and oftentimes it feels like he's the one who's putting me first, putting our family first, and never (okay, rarely) complaining.  He takes care of us in that you know everything is going to be okay because he's there sort of way.  

And, no, we aren't fifteen in this picture.....I can see how you could be confused........

Yesterday was also Katharine's due date.  It was one of those crazy emotional days where you just aren't sure what you're feeling.  I was grateful for my husband and my marriage, grateful for this new little life within me, but also grieving for the life we lost, the little girl I barely had time to know but whom I'll always love.


Seven years and four babies.....I know I've been blessed beyond what I deserve.  I could go on and on about the beauty of marriage and babies but I could never put it as eloquently as Pope John Paul II so I'll just leave it to him:

"According to the plan of God, marriage is the foundation of the wider family, since the very institution of marriage and conjugal love are ordained to the procreation and education of children, in whom they find their crowning.

In its most profound reality, love is essentially a gift; and conjugal love, while leading the spouses  to the reciprocal knowledge which makes them one flesh, does not end with the couple, because it makes them capable of the greatest possible gift, the gift by which they become cooperators with God for giving life to a new human person.  Thus the couple, while giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and  a living and inseparable sythesis of their being a father and a mother.  

When they become parents, spouses receive from God the gift of a new responsibility.  Their parental love is  called to become for the children the visible sign of the very love of God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named."

Familiaris Consortio

You should probably just go ahead and read the whole thing :)