Life 'n Legos: Bad Blogger

Well, I don't think that I've blogged since Brian left, I have been quite busy. I haven't toted my camera around everywhere so I don't have a ton of pictures, but here is a quick recap of the past month.

I moved back to NC on June 8 because I hate Oklahoma and you couldn't have paid me enough to stay there while Brian is gone. I didn't realize just how depressed I had become there until I got back to NC. Despite the fact that I am desperately missing my husband, I have been so much happier here. I am busy because there is tons of stuff to do and I have several friends that I see a few times a week here.

On June 12 we flew up to Michigan to visit my uncle for 10 days. I have such fond memories of spending summers up there, he has about 10 acres with a pool, pond, tractors, dogs, cats, airplanes, etc. His house has always been a blast and it brought back so many memories being there. It was a little bit hard being there for that long though because it wasn't exactly baby proofed. I couldn't turn my head for one second without Mikey getting into something. As a result, I thought that it would be a good idea to put him in the shower with me while I was showering. WRONG! He tried to stand and slipped due to the VERY soft water (it makes everything feel slimey) and busted his eye open. When I picked him up I immediately knew that he needed stitches and freaked a little because I didn't know where a hospital was nor how to deal with tricare out of the area. After I got over my initial freakout I remembered that my uncle is a surgeon, my aunt is a nurse, and they probably have steristrips in the house. I was correct. So, they dried him off and patched him up while I finished my shower (all while hysterically crying because I felt like a horrible mother). While they were patching him up he started getting really mad from being restrained and proceeded to yell "I'M MAD!" 3 people heard it and swear that is exactly what came out of his mouth! He also took his first steps by himself on June 16! We were in the living room and I let go of his hand and he proceeded to take 4 steps. I was so excited! I just wish Brian was here for it. Mikey still prefers crawling to walking because he is much faster at it, but tonight he took 7 steps completely on his own!

Mikey and Uncle Mike on the tractor

Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Mike, and Mikey

Since returning to Raleigh I have joined a kickball team and have also started my team runs with Team in Training. If you make annual donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society please consider doing it through me this year. I am halfway to my fundraising goal and would love to have your support! You can click the link on the right hand side of the page to make a donation or visit my personal site. I run with my friend, Christy, during the week (she is considering taking on the half marathon of the full that I am running...called you out so you have to do it now), I cross train using Insanity, RevAbs, and P90X on the days that I don't run, and I do my long runs with the team on Saturdays. Its awesome, I went to my first team training 2 weeks ago and ran with some dude who was going just about my pace (my goal is to run the whole marathon in under a 10 min/mile pace) and we got to talking. Before I knew it we were at the turnaround and then just about back! When I checked our time it said that we were running at an 8:50 pace for 7 miles!!! I felt like we were going fast, but damn! I am really looking forward to this season with TNT!

We have also spent a lot of time having playdates with Franny and Colt and also hanging out on the boat.

I spent the 4th of July in Wilmington reliving my glory days. My friend, Ashley, came down from Rhode Island and Joe, his GF Anna, and Rob came up from Georgia. We spent a wild time on Masonboro Island on the 4th and then made it out to the beach bars for the first time in 4 attempts! FINALLY! The rest of the week was spent in the sand and surf, it was glorious. We had a blast, I really hope we can do it again with Brian around!

Mikey's first time at the beach! He took off crawling for the ocean as soon as I set him down!

He LOVED the beach!

That's my boy! He crawled up there all by himself, Ashley just showed him how to stand

Brian seems to be doing well, he is staying focused on his job and getting along with his team. We are lucky enough that we have communication significantly better that originally anticipated and we are able to talk about once a day. Sometimes the internet doesn't work all that well and its too slow for him to run his Skype video, but I get to hear his voice and he gets to see Mikey, so all in all we are really lucky. If you want to send him a package he is in need of gifts to give to Afghani children and also to their counterparts. He has requested candy, little lego sets, balls of various types, pocket knives, and flashlights. Brian's favorite snacks are dried Philippino mangoes, fig newtons, bacon flavored sun flower seeds, and ranch flavored sun flower seeds. I am sending a box tomorrow with all of those things so hopefully they will last him a little while. He has started carrying a bat with him and it seems to give a little more radius to his personal space. He says its pretty hot there, breaking 100 daily, but no humidity. Its been breaking 100 here too with A LOT of humidity, so he might actually have better weather! Thank goodness its supposed to cool off this week.

Ok, that's all I can think of for now. Please continue to keep Brian and his team in your prayers.