Busy, Busy Foreman's

Since I went back to work, our days have been...... busy!  Brinleigh wakes up right before I leave the house to go to work and when I get home from work, Kolt has to start getting ready to go to work himself almost right away.  I try to wait up for Kolt to get home but sometimes I end up falling asleep on the couch.  Between waking up early, taking care of the baby, keeping up with the housework, and working out... I am exhausted and ready to pass out by 10pm.  I will admit that it is nice being back at work.  I enjoy waking up with a purpose, actually showering and getting dressed in something other than yoga pants and tank tops, getting out of the house on a daily basis, and having adult conversations with other people.  Even if it usually consists of me talking about the baby.  The paychecks will be nice too and we are looking forward to having that extra money.

 

Kolt and I have gotten pretty serious about working out and trying to eat a lot healthier.  We are both working on our own individual goals to lose some weight.  I work out at home when Brinleigh is taking her afternoon nap and Kolt takes a sports lunch and gets to work out during his lunch break.

 

With our new plans to stay in Sitka for Christmas, I am entertaining myself with ideas and plans to make the Holiday season special for our little family.  I'm not sure if it's because we have a baby now or the fact that living in Sitka can be extremely boring.... especially in the winter time.... but I have developed an exciting urge to celebrate and decorate for every holiday possible.  Holidays are just so much more fun when you have kids to celebrate with and you get to start your own little family traditions.  

I have already ordered and received Brinleigh's Halloween Costume and I can not wait to see it on her.  There will be trick-or-treating downtown at all the local businesses, along with trick-or-treating within the community as well.  The Coast Guard Cutter Maple crew will be setting up a haunted house on the boat that will be open for one night to walk though and I'm still waiting to hear if the Air Station will be putting together a Haunted House inside the hangar like they did last year.  Kolt of course, has to work Halloween night.... AGAIN!  Ugh!  They have a plane down for heavy maintenance for the whole month of October so nobody can take leave.

We also have Alaska Day coming up in a couple weeks which includes a parade that the Coast Guard will march in.  These have become more fun now that Brinleigh watches and seems somewhat entertained by all the commotion.  So Brinleigh and I, along with our parade partner, Kate, will go watch the boys march downtown.

Thanksgiving will be celebrated as it has been for the previous two years that we have been in Sitka.  We will go all out, cooking our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and our friends Kate and Cooper will come over to eat and hang out.

I am planning a bake day with a couple of my close girl friends here in Sitka.  A few weeks before Christmas we are going to spend the day baking yummy Holiday treats while the husbands hang out and watch the babies for us.  We are also planning a Christmas dinner and gift exchange with our close friends.  Of course, I have already started making Brinleigh's Christmas Wish List on Amazon.com.

 

Changes in the Foreman House

I feel like it's been forever since I posted last.

Brinleigh is now 13 1/2 months old and she has the sass to prove it!  She is officially wearing her 12 month size clothes and talking A LOT more these days.  Her vocabulary still only consists of the same few words, which almost sound just alike.  She does say "yes" now, but only if repeating it after me and it's really just the "sssss" sound that she makes.  She mostly just wanders around the house babbling to herself and sometimes throwing out a high pitched screech here and there.  She is a pro at walking now and is getting faster and faster every day.  She is such an animated little thing with such a big personality and we are having so much fun helping her learn grow.

I have decided...... to go back to work.  Part Time Only.  The bank has a few open positions and Kolt and I talked about it and decided that the extra income would be nice to have.  We are coming down to less than a year left in Sitka before we PCS and we would really love to have all of our credit card debt paid and a nice cushion in the savings accounts.  We never know exactly how Kolt's paychecks are going to look when we get to a new place and since I won't be working again at the next duty station, we are going to take advantage of our opportunities here.  Kolt works the night shift (3pm-12am) and so that makes it much easier for me to go back to work.  I will be working from 10am-2pm five days a week so Kolt will be able to stay home with Brinleigh and then once I am home from work he will then go to work.  We won't have as much time together on the days we both work, but again, the situation is temporary.  AND this is also, of course, if it suits our family.  If it ends up not working well with us and our schedules, then I will quit again.  But as of right now, we don't see why it will be a problem.  Brinleigh will be taking her morning nap while I am at work so even though I will be gone four hours a day, it will only be two hours out of her day.  I am hoping that this also helps keep the wintertime blues at bay for myself.  Since we will have much less daylight and it will be colder we won't be able to get out of the house as much, so hopefully working will give me a little break so that I can keep my sanity.

With that being said, here is the bad news........

We probably will NOT be coming home to Arizona for Christmas this year.

The plan has been to come home, however, Kolt and I both think that it would just be much more relaxing and a lot easier to stay in Sitka this year.  This might be our last chance for a real white wintery Christmas since we move next summer.  Brinleigh will be old enough to open gifts and have fun with it and we have a nice little "Sitka Family" here now so that we can have a nice Christmas dinner and it not be so lonely.  Even though I would love to come home and see the family and our friends and enjoy all of our Christmas traditions, I think it will just be easier on us as a family to stay here. And, a lot cheaper!  However, we will be coming to Tucson when we move next summer.  The plan is to leave Sitka, pass through San Diego stopping for a couple days (maybe) to take Brinleigh to the San Diego Zoo, and then come to Tucson for a week (maybe two).  We will then be going to Texas for a few days so Kolt can hunt a little and then continuing on to our next duty station.  Which will hopefully be somewhere between Alabama and North Carolina.

Kolt puts in his "picks" next month for where he would like to go for his next duty station.  I think as of right now the list is:  Clearwater, Florida - Mobile, Alabama - Elizabeth City, North Carolina - Cape Cod, Massachusetts - San Diego, California - Astoria, Oregon.  This is all subject to change of course and this is only his 60 picks.  He can list other locations if he wants to try to switch to C130's or H-65's.  We should find out where we are going for sure in the beginning of January, hopefully.

Brinleigh's 1 Year Photo's

I finally got Brinleigh's 1 year pictures CD from the photographer this week and I have to say, I am very happy with how they turned out.  I know I'm a little obsessed with documenting everything Brinleigh does and it seems like I am constantly wanting family/Brinleigh pictures done, and I can only thank God that Kolt allows this and puts up with my madness.  He is such a good man.  

Here are some of my favorites but the pictures are also uploaded to Smugmug (photo sharing website) where you can order prints and have them mailed to you.  If any of you want to view/order these photos, email me at Foreman112005@yahoo.com and I will send you the link.