Weekend Away

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Sophia and I headed to Texas to visit Jerry. I convinced our neighbor Rod to get up earlier than his normal time and drop Sophia and I off at the airport. Thanks Rod!

We were dropped off by the bell hop area and my bag was over weight and the assistant took me inside to pay the fee. Thankfully, the representative at American Airlines waved the fee. However, when I gave the Bell Hop the $3 tip he was disgusted with my tip and told me to take it back. Can you believe that! Now, my suitcase has wheels and his energy spent was worth no more. Ugh! That made me feel so sick inside and as if I was a cheap individual. I gave him another dollar and was on my way. Does anyone know the proper amount to tip? How do you gauge the amount to tip a bell hop? I think I need to write Dear Abby for the answer.

Sophia was a perfect angel on the morning flights, I could not ask for a better girl! We actually sat next to another wife in the same situation who was visiting her hubby as well. She was a great help with handling Sophia in those "need another hand moments".

We arrived in Texas and Jerry met us late in the afternoon and we had some quality time together. Sophia did not really make a fuss in regards to Jerry. She said hey.... he can come along for the ride if you want mommy. He can stay the night in the hotel, except I am going to cry every time you leave my sight, especially when you want to relax and take a shower. I will be crying in this man's arms just so you know I am still here and you can't enjoy your shower. Ha Ha!

We packed up the car and took a drive to San Antonio. Now, the freeways are nice but man, the traffic is bad. It's defiantly a beautiful and clean State, but over populated and busting at the seams in the big cities. We had one night where we walked the river walk and actually met up with another solider & wife by accident. Very lovely couple and we ate together at "Dick's restaurant". Have you ever ate there before? They are purposely sarcastic and mean to you. They make these hat's from paper place mats that have inappropriate & funny sayings on them. What a hoot and good time!

Now, hold tight because this is where the weekend turned messy! It was about 4am and Sophia was having another hard night of sleep. We decided to get up, diaper and feed her a bottle. Jerry took the diapering duty and I made the bottle. While I was making the bottle, I heard a thump and Sophia screaming. I ran into the room and both Jerry and Sophia are on the floor. Jerry can barely talk... All he could say is take care of Sophia, my Back! I settled Sophia down and was able to tend to Jerry. He had pulled his back and we were able to get him back on the bed for a few more hours of sleep.

I was up at the crack of dawn worrying about everything. Sophia must of sensed my nervousness, because she was just a little devil. I could not get her comfortable for a second. Jerry tried to leave the bed, but was unable. We had to call an ambulance, there was no way I was going to be able to care for them both. These nice EMT men came to the room and convinced Jerry with their assistance to get into our car and go to the nearest Military Hospital. We spent the day in the ER and finally got to see the PA. Jerry is doped up on Purcaset, Valium and Ibuprofen. He was ordered by the Military PA to bed rest for 72 hours.

Needless to say, the next 2 days were spent taking care of Sophia then Jerry, next Sophia then Jerry. Sunday night, we drove him back to his base. He had taken a shower earlier in the day, so we knew he could walk to his quarters. He got home safely to the room and his battle buddy was there to greet him and I feel he is in good hands. I talked with Jerry earlier tonight, he is very doped up. He is defiantly, not okay to be working yet. There have been a lot of buddies that have called and checked in on him. He did not know what his next step was. He was waiting to hear what to do next. I will fill you in on the next entry.

I don't want to harp on the situation, but I have never felt such a mix of sadness and anger. I feel totally cheated and hurt. I am disappointed to a degree that I have never felt before. I don't claim to be the perfect wife or mother and I promised to be honest with myself when expressing the feelings of this year, in order to record this history. I am afraid, if I wrote really what I was feeling I would disappoint you. So with this being said.... We are glad to be home. Sophia was so happy to see her familiar toys. She slept with out making a peep last night.

Blizzard of 2008

Yes, it is true.... We got about 20 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. Sophia and I were taken care of by so many neighbors. Friday Night, John got the early inches shoveled, then Rod early in the morning got the morning snow, but after his work, the snow came down so quickly. I received so many calls from concerned neighbors wanting to shovel our driveway.

Neighbors down the street Bill, Lille & Bill came to my rescue with the blowers and shovels. I just recently met the neighbors this winter when we hosted the "Olentangy Street Party". I thanked them and they just said your hubby is doing something for us, so we can do something for you. Thank you fabulous Neighbors.

I also managed to flood the upstairs bathroom with TP in the toilet. (I promise only #1) I walked to the basement to fill the washer after flushing the toilet and returned upstairs to hear the water running down my first floor walls. Some of you may know.... Jerry and I just paid to have previous ceiling and bathroom damage repaired. All I can say is "Shit Happens". Neighbors Rosie whisked away Sophia while Rod & I assessed the situation. Thanks For your help Rod & Rosie.

Now on to some great news! Sophia and I are heading to Texas to visit Jerry. We will be leaving this week and staying for a few days. Are biggest adventure is to San Antonio. We are excited to see the Alamo and the water walkway. Jerry can't wait to see Sis in her pink Bikini. We are ready for some family time.

Next entry will be some good photos of the 3 of us.

Just Photos

Bottle of Wine titled "Mommy's Time Out" given to me by neighbors across the street Scott & Nancy. Laura Bova and I did a good job of drinking it up Saturday night. Thanks Scott & Nancy!

Sophia standing in the living room. The ottomans are just the perfect height. I place her there and she stands as long as she can. She has the Mourn Bootie.

Maria and Sophia hanging out Saturday night. Sophia managed to place every single toy of Maria's in her mouth. Mommy Laura Bova made me a nice Sandwich while the girls played. We ate Texas Sheet Cake after. GG made her famous cake for us to enjoy.

WWF, Magnificent Maria with the "Ear Tug" move giving Sassy Sophia a run for the money. Folks, who do you think cried first???? Thankfully neither! They were really enjoying each other and starting to pay more attention to one another.

Look Mom, One Hand!

Sophia getting ready to crawl! She is up on all fours, however not quite there.

At the unit, they have a board decorated with letters from students to the soldiers. It's really cool as people can walk by and read the letters. This was part of the Christmas Tree that was donated to Jerry's Unit.

Sophia and Jackson hanging out on Saturday night.

Angels

Wow, it has been a week! It seems that every week gets crazier and crazier! I was sent two angels this week.

Grandma Grove came to visit last Wednesday and stayed for a week. She was such a big help. I need to list my favorite things...

1. Every snowy morning, she was out early scooping my driveway.

2. Watched Sophia for some long days while I was at work.

3. Helped make the nurse calls to sister Christie for some advise how to mask my flu symptoms.

4. Pushed me to complete the sewing of Heidie's stylized bow for her wedding dress & work on Heidie & Shu's scrap book.

5. Did not complain an ounce about the working men fixing my bathroom floor and painting the trim.

Now, I would like to list some classic Joan Grove moments.....

1. We had started an assembly line for Heidie's wedding dress bow. I sewed the bias strips bows and she would press them. Well, GG brought down the Linen Temperature Iron onto the fine/delicate organza bow and melted our hard work away. Now, GG has a 1960's Home Economic Teaching Degree. She will need to go back to University of Northern Iowa for some refresher classes.

2. Every chance she got, she flipped the wrong light switch in the dining room and powered down everything.

3. GG went shopping at Macy's and brought home 4 bed pillows. She packed two in her suitcase and carried two in the plane.

4. Then her flight did not leave on Tuesday and she re-appeared like Groundhogs day. Poor GG had to spend the entire day in the Airport. I just felt horrible and worried. She reassured me, that she enjoyed reading her "Eat, Pray, Love" book all day. She is so generous and never complains.

My 2nd Angel that appeared is Sister in Law Janalee Mourn. She arrived from her business trip in Illinois. Janalee is from Houston, Texas and she came to visit her family in Athens.

I have not mentioned it on this blog, but I am planning an Easter Egg Hunt for the family readiness group next saturday. There are 150 families in Jerry's unit. So, needless to say I have had a lot on my plate. I have been worried about filling the Easter eggs with goodies. Not to mention my supplies had not arrived. However, when we got home there was a box from Oriental Trading with all the supplies and eggs. Below is a photo of Janalee busy filling 480 Easter eggs with goodies. I can't tell you the stress that was lifted from my chest after she completed this task. Thank you Janalee.

Valentines Day

I love Valentine's Day! I have always loved the holiday, pre Jerry days. I think it was the excitement and idea of finding "Movie" type love. Sophia and I were defiantly not forgotten or lonely on the holiday. In fact, with Sophia's sickness I almost missed the holiday until I found a package on Wednesday night from Anthropology on my back porch. Jerry had sent me a lovely purse he picked out from the web site. Thanks Hun!

Valentines day, was a whirlwind. I was praying and hoping Sophia was feeling better when she went to Jackson & Tricia's home. Thankfully, Tricia was up for the challenge and gave Sophia all the TLC she desired. I can't believe how good she is at balancing love for both Jackson and Sophia. Thanks Tricia!

Sophia received a lovely Teddy Bear & Tulip Bouquet from her #1 Valentine her dad. Above is photos of her with the bouquet. I received a Valentines bouquet from Jerry at work. The attached photos is from today, so they are looking a little rough. The paper flower box is from a very creative co-worker Kim Shellock.

In the evening, John, Laura and Maria Bova called for us to come over for a Spaghetti Dinner from Smiths. Yummy! Sophia took a turn for the better and played with Maria. John and Laura watched the two girls, while I got the opportunity to pack for the weekend in Iowa. Thanks Bova's for a great night and sharing the holiday with us.

When I returned back from my weekend in Iowa, I had a dozen red roses from my neighbors Barb & Larry Cassell. The attached card said Thank you Jerry, Sophia and Tiffanie for your sacrifice for our country. I was so touched! The goodness that has been so graciously blessed on us is undescriable. A thank you note, can never be enough.

P.S. I am trying to keep this note positive, but I do need to put a quick thank you out to neighbor Rosie who at the last moment watched Sophia on Wednesday night after I had run out of TLC for Sophia.

P.P.S. I have been waiting for this out of the world present for Jerry that has been delayed since early January. So poor Jerry only got a box full of his mail, tax documents and a Valentines Card. I promise, once we get this out of the world gift, it will be worth the wait.

Humble

All, I can say is last week was very humbling. With Sophia's unexplainable crying, lack of sleep, and shot nerves I have truly been pulled down from my Super Military Wife Single Mom Pedestal to reality.

After a good Valentines Dinner with the Bova's, I thought Sophia was on the mend. I was feeling confident that our flight home to Iowa was going to be easy peasie. I was quickly brought down to reality, when Sophia cried for 2 hours straight on the plane. I sat in the bathroom for over 1 hour, trying to calm her down. There was nothing I could do to make her happy. I could go on and on about the flight, but what for...

THANK GOD! Grandma and Grandpa Grove were at the airport to take Sophia. I had actually ran out of any reserve and rationed tank of TLC. I am not happy with myself on how I handled the stressful situations. I lost focus, was not able to think rationally. Again, I could beat myself up but do you really want to read about that???

The weekend quickly turned into a Fabulous Time. My older sister's family drove from Missouri to be with us for the day. Mom, Christie, Heidie and I went to the Heuer's home for Heidie's Wedding Shower. We later had a grand pizza party get together with Uncle & Aunt Bill & Lois Grove, Dave, Carrie, Peter, Maria and Dave's parents. Below are some photos from the weekend.

Sophia quickly grabbing on Granda Grove's earing. She is fast.
Heidie, Christie, Cousin Carrie and myself on Saturday night for the "Grove" pizza party.
Grandpa & Grandma Grove with grandchildren Sophia, Reece & Ryan.

Old friend Peggy Murray. We grew up together on Dupont Circle and have remained good family friends since age 3.

Chris and Suzie Heuer (Hosts of the Shower). Our families grew up together at Broadway Methodist Church.

Heidie, smiling and showing off the beautiful china plate that the delicious food was served on. I love this photo. She looks so happy!

Sister Christie, Mom, Heidie & Me. Can you believe the color combos we had on??? They match so close.

Christie and Marilyn Maddox. We also met Marilyn at Broadway Methodist Church. Marilyn and I share a B-day.

Myself with Linda Allen. We met the Allen's at the old neighborhood. Linda has a new grandaughter Kiera who was born in early January to Trisha & Jim Schlick. Tricia and I were BFF as kids.

Aunt Chrissie with Sophia and her daughter Ryan. (I was not allowed to hold Sophia all weekend long, to get a break). After her performance on the plane, I needed to build up some TLC fuel.

Grandpa Grove with Sophia and Shu/Heidie's Dog Taylor.

Serving Coffee at the shower. Don't I look like a lady from the 1950's who has 3 children, stays at home, cooks all the meals for the family, does the laundry, puts make up on daily, and loves every minute of it.

Mom with good friend Lee Cooper. The Grove Girl's are looking forward to getting to know Lee better.

The table at the Shower. I love this photo, with the sun peaking through and adorning the plates and utensils with bright rays. The beauty of the photo sums up the special day for Heidie.

I often wonder if people are reading the blog, but this weekend I kept talking with people who said... We love reading your blog. You crack me up, keep them coming and that makes me just giddy! So thank you for reading the blog, I hope I bring you laughs and very few tears.

I need to end this note with a couple random thank yous!! They will never reach the people, but I want to tell you about their kindness.

Lady on the plane to Omaha (outside the bathroom, we stayed in for an hour). Thanks for holding Sophia and wearing the gold African animal necklas that kept Sophia from crying for about 20 minutes.

Gentleman on the plane back to Columbus who kept myself and Sophia entertained with stories of his life and who carried our bags and attempted to help us run to our gate to catch our next flight. Too bad, we were too late.

***The best fact is Sophia is feeling great! Back to her old self. Hurah! My TLC tank is getting back to full.

What a weekend!

Sophia reading Valentines card from Johnny.

Older sister Christie Howard left her 6 month old daughter Ryan & 3 1/2 year old Reece in St. Joe, Missouri to come take care of her middle sister so un-selfishly. Saturday night we had a girls night at the house with the theme of making "No Sew" Blankets and Mexican food. The delicious food was catered by none other than friend Sharon Evanich. A group of Clintonville girls came to the house to catch up and make blankets for love ones. Thanks ladies for a fun night!

Sunday, I hired this great baby sitter that I met at the Mommy Mixer who came and watched Sophia for a few hours. Christie and I rushed out of the house and did some serious shopping w/out Sophia. Now, I would like to say we shopped for make-up, tried on fabulous clothing....but that is a lie. One quick stop into Target to buy valentine’s card, One long trip into babies r us for diapers, formula and registry shopping for a friend, and one really really long visit at the Cord Camera scrap booking store. Since, I know my little sister does not read the blog... I can say that we are building her a Scrapbook for a wedding gift. We were really strategic and organized when shopping for her items. It was so much fun. Wow, that scrap booking hobby is quite an art form. I don't think we will win the Blue Ribbon at the State Fair, but we had a lot of fun. It was so nice to sit down and build the pages. Mandatory Fun I say....

As I mentioned above my sister Christie has 2 kids who unfortunately have chronic ear infections. She knows how to identify them and help cope with the tears. Not to mention she is also a nurse. I had noticed that Sophia was brushing her ears with her hands and was quite fussy. So, Monday afternoon, my sister took Sophia into the Dr. for a check up. He said all was clear, just a soar throat, and gave her round 2 of the flu shot. As soon as I got home from work... Sophia was wound for sound. We could do nothing to make her feel better. She just cried and cried and cried some more. We finally put her in the bath tub for about an hour which seemed to calm her down. When she got out of the bath tub she was back at it again. We then buckled her in her car seat and braved the snowy weather with hopes of Sophia falling to sleep. She fell asleep lightly in the car after 10 minutes of driving.

Christie and I found the drive therapeutic as well and decided to keep driving. We had a deep conversation, touching on finances, being working moms, the constant desire to always be better and never just happy with our educational level, my OCD, our baby weight around or stomachs, and so much more. It was probably the best hour we spent together. A good sisterly bond.

So your wondering.... Is Sophia feeling better. The answer is No. Today is Wednesday, and I was fearful I was going to be on the Nightly News for neglecting a very sick baby, I called off for the day and went back to the Doctor. Sophia was a Doll at the Doctor. Hiding all her pain and flirted with the Doctors. They thought the fever and brushing of her ears is the teething. She has 3 teeth on top, 2 teeth on the bottom alreadybusting through the skin. Another tooth on top and two more on the bottom just around the corner. She is in PAIN! Instead of the Tylenol, I am giving her a good dose of Motrin. This should help with the pain, and also allowed me to write this Blog entry as she is out C O L D. THANK GOD!!!!!! She is testing my mothering ability and patience. I must admit, I lost my cool a couple times. Thank god my sister was here to help. A little angel! I would not of been able to do these days alone. Christie returned home yesterday. She was ready to see her family.

My dad, is not one of many words.... So when he speaks, I try to really listen. I remember this summer, when I was visiting my parents for just a few days w/out Jerry. I was tired, emotional, in complete shock, and wondering if I could stuff Sophia back where she was for last 10 months. He had taken me out to dinner and I was experiencing my afternoon cries and I said to him.... She has turned my life upside down, what did I do, I can't do this... So his words of wisdom were.......

Tiffanie, this is why God made it so two people make a child, because it makes it easier when two people can take care of the child. Ahhha.

I have complete admiration for single parents. I am going to make it this year, but I don't want to do this single parent thing again.

So, enough harping...

I need to brag on and on about my Fantastic Neighbors & Thank Them!

Gina & John helped watch Sophia on Saturday. In that short 2 hours I was gone.... I went to the bank, dropped off dry-cleaning, got gas in the car, and picked up Christie from the airport. Few! Lot's accomplished!

Abby & Carene came over on Fat Tuesday, to let me taste their Sticky Buns. YUMMMMMMMY! We also got in a hill workout on Monday while Pete, Abby & Gracie watched Sophia.

Tricia & Jackson Arthur came to the house yesterday to watch Sophia and let her sleep in her own bed. Tricia so graciously gave Sophia some much needed TLC. This was so helpful! Tricia, also brought me some fantastic soup.

When I arrived home last night, my neighbor John Bova was shoveling my driveway and had dropped off some Snowday soup....

I am sooooo blessed. I don't have enough words to express my thanks!

Sophia is up, and not crying. Hurah!