I wanted to post much sooner than this but our rented wireless modem from Qwest hasn't been too happy with all the lightening we've had lately, so we've been out of commission. But, here I am with our latest!
First, we had a couple wonderful birthday celebrations for Elly. I posted a lot of new pics on our flickr site so be sure to check it out. We ended up having her friend celebration on her birthday in addition to her birthday lunch with C&S. On Friday, I was pleasantly surprised by a phone call from Mike in the afternoon asking me to come and pick him up for a few hours. So, we ended up being able to celebrate as a family the day after her birthday. We had a lot of fun at both celebrations.
We started potty training Ivie again, and this time is a lot better. I think she just needed those few extra months to get in the groove. Heck, I needed that time too. We're relying on some good 'ol fashioned bribery with Littlest Pet Shops. Ivie has a potty chart and she earns "Potty Points" every time she uses her big girls potty. We keep track of her "potty points" on her potty chart. She gets to out a sticker on her chart, and herself, each time she uses her potty and after predetermined number of successes, we take her to Wal-Mart and let her pick out a Littlest Pet Shop. We started out pretty easy with only 4 potty points, and now she's working on earning 6. It goes to 10, 16, 19 and then 23. She's had 3 great days with a not so great day tossed in there. Overall, I am really proud of her and her efforts and impressed with how much more relaxed I am with the process.
On a "not so fun" note, for those of you who don't know, Mike has been given his deployment orders and they are slated to leave early December for 15 months. This wasn't a surprise to us, but what we're being told as to their destination is not comforting (like any place there would be). The worst part for us is their block leave is only 9 days. If we would have known about the shortened time off we definitely would have returned to MI last month. 9 days just isn't a lot to say goodbye to family we see only a couple of times a year. Sure I'll be making trips back to MI while Mike is gone, but it's really hard for Mike, he's upset about it. Right now we're hearing his time off will be late October/early November, so for those of you in MI that can pencil that in to your calendars, we'd appreciate it. We have a lot of people to see in that time frame, and hope that we'll see everyone. Most importantly is for Mike to have time with his family since I'll be able to return to MI after he leaves. Of course, any and all of these "plans" are subject to change, so I'll be keeping ya'll updated as we have more definite dates. In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers.
Mike's out in the field again, and I'm sure will continue to be on a more regular basis until they deploy, but will be returning tomorrow. Oh, and we've got a few more birthdays to celebrate this month: my father, mother, brother-in-law and mother-in-law. And, my parents will be leaving in a week to head out here. We're super excited to have our first out-of-town/overnight guests in our new home! I just can't wait.
I think that about does it. Until next time.....
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