I haven't felt like I really belonged to a church family since college. There is the church I was raised in, (though somehow not Baptized in), and they are the closest to home because it's pretty much all I knew as a kid. Briar Hill was just where my family went to church, so it's where I went to church. Then cue the new Man in my life, and he doesn't really have a preference. He wasn't raised particularly religious, but he was baptized as a Methodist baby. He is supportive, and goes wherever I want to go. So there's that.

We visited a few churches in Guam, and we found the one we fit best into just right before we left.. bummer.

Then, in Hawaii, I did a little Google searching and a large Presbyterian church with a wonderful childrens ministry very close to us. I went alone one Sunday because Jason was at sea, but after that, it was our church. We love First Prez at KoOlau, and I'm sure we will faithfully attend when we get back to Oahu. (Which, by the way, is totally going to happen.)

But now, here in Memphis, we've made some leaps and bounds in our spiritual walk together. I guess the first step was going to Hope Pres. Wow, that church is awesome, and for the most part, right up our alley. We loved the music, we loved the preaching. The only thing we didn't love was the drive. We could have even learned to deal with the fact that it was a massive church and nobody would ever miss us if we were gone. (They haven't) But the drive was just too much. 45 minutes to church? Still have to unload babies in the nursery? No way.

Our next venture came with me making a friend, and finding out that said friend went to the church where I was considering placing Garrett for Mom's Day Out. She invited us to Sunday School with them, and we went. It was very nice, and I can see these people are a great group of Christians. We just didn't feel like it was "our" place.

So, on a whim, we visited Bartlett Baptist Church, and we immediately fell in like. Yep, just like. We liked it enough to come back the following Sunday. The next Sunday was a special all-day-long conference on marriage and family. Well, it saved my husband's eternal soul, I will say that. It made me think hardcore about the way I've been approaching our marriage.

And then, as if those two things weren't wonderful enough, we made some friends!

We made friends who invited us to Wednesday night dinner/church. So we went.
Then they invited us to Sunday School. So we went.
Then they invited us out for dinner with another new couple. So we all went, and we've all become friends.

This is amazing to me. But it shouldn't be.. this is how Military life works, and I should be used to it. You're told "You'll make friends as soon as you open up to the possibility of friends." Well, I guess it took me this long to really open up, because here the friends come, and I am loving it. I am loving Bartlett Baptist Church. I'm loving that I skipped service this morning because I wasn't feeling well, but here I am MISSING that worship service. Missing the praise music, missing the lesson from Brother Michael. Missing that little bit of Jesus I can feel during and after the service. To say I'm loving this time in my life is a huge understatement. And now, my new friends are going to read this and think me a total weirdo. And then they might read old posts and just KNOW me a total weirdo :)

Wow. It's been a long time since I took a month off from writing. In fact, I'm not sure I ever have. The life of my little family has been so insanely busy over the last month that I wasn't able to even think about writing. Things have finally settled down a little bit, so my brain is able to hold a little more. 

My babies have been growing and changing a lot in the past 35 days. Baby G has had a bunch of drastic changes. In the past month, he's eaten a bunch of new foods, cut his first tooth, started arm-crawling around the house, and finally slept through the night at 6 months old. Whoa, that was a long 6 months!

Katie learned the entire alphabet, learned to count to 10, turned 2, had a big birthday party, and then started school for the very first time. See all those updates? That sounds like a bunch of writing to me.

As for Honey and I, we've been busy putting our house together, and getting used to being around each other all the time. We just ended our longest streak of nights in the same bed together last week at a whopping 77 nights! That's a whole 77 days without a single duty day, or night spent on the boat for work, and it was amazing. I'm telling y'all, Shore Duty is every single bit it was cracked up to be! Alas, Honey is recruiting for NUPOC, so that means a bit of travel. In fact, he'll be in and out a lot this Fall. That's ok though, because in exchange, he works shorter hours when he's home. I can handle a few days here and there, I think. I think.

And now I'm going to get back into my routine of writing while the Tinies nap.. at least I hope I am. 

Today will be relaxed for us, which makes me very happy.  After spending 2 full days in the AMC terminal, I am happy for a day in my house.  I am also very happy that I did spend those two days in the terminal, because if I had left either of those days, we wouldn't be here to celebrate his first Father's Day.  Things work like they're supposed to ;)


Honey has Saturday duties, so I had to pick him up first thing this morning (after I found out our flight was grounded for the day.. again.).  Then we went for brunch at IHOP.  It isn't nice or fancy, but it's one of the only places on our side of the island that does breakfast.  And Honey LOVES breakfast.


Since he is napping right now (because I'm the best wife ever), I have a few minutes to myself.  I'm going to use those minutes to tell everyone why he's such a great Daddy and Husband.

• He changes just as many diapers as I do (when he's home).
• He takes the early mornings with Katie Beth since I will be home with her all day.  -  I like to think he's just doing it to help me out, but I really think he enjoys alone time with her, too.
• He feeds KB just as often as I do, and more often than I do when he's home.  
• He sings silly songs and reads silly stories to our baby girl.
• He gets her dressed when I ask him to, and her clothes even match!  And sometimes he remembers shoes!
• He steams veggies, bakes apples, and indulges me when I say that we're going to teach KB to eat in a way he's never heard of before.  (Baby Led Weaning)
• He plays with KB, but he also teaches her things.  
• He gives me back rubs when I've had a hard day, even though he was the one at an actual job all day.
• His clothes usually make it into the laundry basket :)
• He makes the bed if he's the last one up.  I don't even do that.
• He helps me clean the kitchen every night, unless I specifically say, "No, you [do whatever], I've got the kitchen.

So Jason is gone again, and I sit here annoyed with myself that I wasn't home with him for the past week.  I'm not going to complain that I am home with my family and friends.. that would be extremely obnoxious.  But it really bothers me that I will never be able to have both my husband and my family (to include my best friends).

During a phone conversation the other night, Jason told me that he had calculated all of the days we have between now and sometime in April when he will return from his last mission with this command.  Of the days left, he calculated the ones we will have together, those where we will be apart but able to talk, and those where he will be underway.  I don't know what all of the numbers added up to, but he said that we will spend 68% of our time apart between now and April.  68 percent.  Marriages aren't meant to be spent apart, much less 68 percent of the time.

I am so proud of what Jason does, and I'm even more proud of how he feels about what he does.  Being in the Navy, and being a Submarine Officer isn't just a paycheck to Jason.  He genuinely loves his job.  He doesn't always like the climate in which he works, and he usually hates the amount of time he spends at work, but he loves the work.

To be fair, I love the Navy life.  I love everything about it except the time we spend apart, and the fact that there will almost never be a time where we live close to either of our hometowns.  I know that isn't a big deal to most people.  If my family wasn't in my hometown, it wouldn't be to me, either.  I definitely don't have any emotional ties to my high school or anything.  I am, however, extremely attached to my family and to the friends I have here.  In fact, I don't think I'm attached like most people are.. I think my family goes above and beyond with the closeness thing.  Even while in Guam, I talk to Mom almost every day, Mammaw a few times a week, and Dad at least once a week.  I miss them so much while I'm a gajillion miles away.

But the flip side of that is Jason.  I learned last Fall that my real home will always be where he is.  If he decides to make the Navy his career, and drags me all over the globe to do it, so be it.  If home changes every two years for the next sixteen, fine.  If our kids never make lifelong friends because they move so often... Well, I just hope they don't resent us for it.  In fact, I hope they appreciate the fact that they will have passports before they even eat solid food.  Katie Beth's is actually already applied for, when I didn't get my first passport until I was 22!

All of this to say, I miss my husband and I'm sad I wasn't in our home when he got there.  I'm grateful for the time I get to spend with my family here.  I'm even more grateful that Katie Beth will have good relationships with her grandparents and great grandparents because we will come home often.  But I really miss my husband.

Now that Jason is underway and isn't here to read what I write, I'm going to write about him.  These past three weeks have opened my eyes even more to how truly blessed I am to have a husband such as he.  Not only has Jason been strong in a very emotional situation, but he has been my foundation, too.  I honestly don't think I would have made it through those first two weeks without him holding me up.



The first time Jason and I dated, in the fall of 06, he got serious pretty quickly and it freaked me out.  We had only been together maybe a month when he asked what size ring I wore.  I was still hung up on someone else, and to be honest, I wasn't used to being treated the way he was treating me.  I was used to being pushed away, not chased after.  I liked the game in it all, and there was no game with Jason.  He was up front with what he wanted, and he wanted me.  So I broke up with him.  I remember calling my mom and telling her what I was about to do, and she told me how crazy I was.  She called me out on pushing him away because he wasn't doing the pushing himself.  "You just want what you can't have."  Yep.

October 06

Jason didn't talk to me for a very long time..  Like, two years.  Apparently, he wasn't accustomed to being dumped.  When I finally got him to speak to me again (over Facebook, of course), I knew we were going to get married.  I specifically remember telling a friend that Jason was the one that got away, and I fully intended to get him back.  Get him back I did.  He drove to Jackson to see me again for the first time on New Years Day 09.  By the next afternoon we were officially together (like, Facebook official.. serious stuff) even though he was going to Guam in only a few months.  He told me he loved me the next night, and I knew I loved him, too.  I knew I loved him two years before this, but hey.. better late than never, right?  When Jason left to go to Sub School in Connecticut three days later, he told me to start looking at rings and give him an idea of what I wanted.  A week later I flew to CT and hung out with him in Groton for 10 days, where I got to meet all of his buddies from Power School and Prototype.  Then came Valentine's Day in Groton, and then a month later I made the road trip down from CT to meet his family in TN.

January 09

The very first time I partied with Navy boys.. What a long night!

Valentines 09

Road trip from Connecticut to Tennessee - Fun times!

The rest of that story is that we were married 95 days after seeing each other again for the first time.

Jason proposing.  Somehow, he and my best friends managed to keep the secret, so I was floored.

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick

Jason is probably the most patient man I've ever met.  I mean, seriously, he puts up with some crap from me. I can be difficult, as a few exes will readily attest, and he just deals with it.  I've honestly never felt loved the way he loves me.  He's strong when I need him to be, and when I need sensitive, he's that too.  He never let me see him pause with everything that went on with myself and Katie Beth, though I now know he did.  He knew that I needed him to be strong so I could be strong, and so he did it.

New Years Eve 09

I got to actually watch Jason fall in love with our little girl, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  The first time he held her, she got a good grip on his finger, and he told her that she was beautiful and that he loved her.  I have never been so happy in my entire life as I was watching my love meet our daughter.  After that, he stepped right into Husband and Father Of The Year mode.  He changed diapers, he burped and fed her, he read her stories and rocked her to sleep.  When we got home, he took care of me too.  He helped me shower, got me snacks, kept me comfortable when I wanted to cry.  Then when I did cry, he cried with me.

Katie Beth meeting her Daddy

I am one of those "Everything happens for a reason" people.  I'm pretty sure God knw that I would never have been able to handle this NICU situation alone, so when He decided that this was going to happen to my body, He sent me someone who could handle it for me.

I always miss Jason when he's gone, but this time is a little harder for me.  I know he loves his job though, so I can handle it.  Now I just have to keep him away from this blog once he gets home, and trust me, I'm counting the days.

I always knew that parenthood changed people.  I never thought I would be an exception to that rule, but I didn't spend much time thinking about it at all.  This past week has opened my eyes.  I find myself getting really excited about having a few minutes to take a nap, or watch an entire tv show.  I completely forget about things that used to matter to me. Case in point:  Two days ago, I was sitting with Jason and my brother, when I noticed how incredibly hairy my legs had gotten.  Granted, I was 1 week post surgery, so it made sense.  I commented "Wow, my legs are hairy!"  "Yeah they are," Jason said.  I said "Well, it's not like I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I can't even bend over to shave them!"  Jason responded with, "Maybe.. but what's your excuse for your armpits?"

Now don't think my honey a jerk.. He was being funny and I laughed so hard!  I hadn't even thought about my armpits!  I mean, I have definitely showered since I got out of the hospital, but somehow I had completely neglected my poor under arms.  I can't believe I hadn't noticed.  WHO does that?!  I finally understand how so many women "let themselves go" after having a baby.  I don't want to sound like one of those women, but I feel like I have so much going on, that some things can't matter for a little while.  I feel like I wake up, pump, eat, drive, feed the baby, and repeat this 2 or 3 times a day.  It's amazing how much this little girl has changed my life in only 9 days.


To my friends, please don't be upset if I come across as short in a text or phone call.  I don't mean to be rude and push you away.  With so many people who love us, it has gotten hard to keep up with updating everyone on how Katie Beth is doing.  I'm definitely not complaining about being loved, and in fact it makes me feel wonderful that so many people care.  It's just gotten a little hectic around here.  I know everything will settle down soon and I'll wonder where everyone went.  Anyway, please forgive me if I come across as rude.. I promise I don't mean to, and I'm usually just really, really tired and stressed.


I can't wait until this baby girl is home and gets to meet all the people who have been praying for her!

I want to be good about keeping this updated, but I guess we'll see whether or not that happens.  As of today, I'm 31 weeks and 1 day pregnant.  Katherine Elizabeth is due on 10/10/10, and we can't wait for her arrival.  The only down side to any of this is that Jason will likely be deployed when she gets here.  I'm terrified of giving birth alone, or even close to alone, so I've decided to go home to Mississippi soon.  I can fly on a Space A flight up until 34 weeks, so I'm going soon.  I'm going to miss Jason like crazy, but that never changes.  My heart hurts every single time he goes underway.

Sub Ball 2010 - 14 weeks pregnant