Videos

It's been a few weeks since I've put a post here about my kids, so I figure it's about time again. Austin started walking last month. He's been walking with help (fingers, furniture) for some time, but the other day he just stood up and took off.  Usually when he walks, he sticks his arms straight up in the air over his head to help him balance. This time we was too busy chewing on his fingers. He can go quite a ways at a time now. I'm so proud.

Cami has been about the same. We had yet another powder incident, with not one, but two bottles of powder. My fault for leaving them in the room with her while they were playing. She also used up a full box of wipes to clean up the mess. You can't tell in the picture, but she has her diaper off and is in the process of trying to powder and re-diaper herself. So helpful. She and Austin were covered in powder, the picture gives a fair idea of what it was like. Also, regular vacuums don't pick up powder very well. Lesson I learned the hard way. Our vacuum was spouting powder after I tried to vacuum it all up. Every time I'd pick up the vacuum and set it down again, there's be a nice little collection of powder on the floor. Sterling had to take it outside and hose it out. So, advice for you future/current mom's out there: invest in a shop vac or else just don't leave your two-year old alone in a room with the baby powder.

While Sterling was at OCS he wrote me and told me that he missed Cami and that all he could think about was her fake laugh, so I thought I'd post it. It makes us laugh when she does it. I'm not sure who she's imitating, but it's funny. Her hair really adds to the impression of a crazy child too.

One last video, this is one Sterling took and thought I should post. Her idea of 'jumping' is simply 'falling'. She's hurt herself a few times doing this, but somehow it doesn't discourage her at all.

Changes. What else is new?

I think from now on I'm no longer going to write posts about what's happening career wise with our family, because our plans change so frequently that it just gets confusing for the reader.

As you've probably guessed, there have been some changes again. Sterling is back from the Marines. On Monday the 17th he came down with a cough that, on Wednesday, was joined by a fever. He pushed through it for as long as he could, then on Wednesday, when the fever made it's appearance, he reported to medical. They did x-rays of his chest and other such tests and found out that he had bronchitis. 

Fantastic. 

At least it wasn't pneumonia. 

They put him on a whole bunch of meds and told him to just sleep it off. So he went back to his bunk and slept the rest of the day. The next day he's worse, so he goes back to medical and they put him on a whole new set of meds because obviously the old set wasn't working.

He was stuck in his bunk for the rest of the weekend. I got a call from a senior sister missionary out there the following Sunday who told me that he wasn't at church that day because he was sick in bed with bronchitis. A fellow LDS marine from his platoon relayed the information. You can bet that had me stressed out. I made several phone calls to family and cried to my best friend and after that I felt a whole lot better.

Sterling wasn't cleared by medical to go back out and train, so he missed quite a few days of training. I don't know what would have happened if he'd gone against medical and trained anyways. Probably something bad, like getting more sick (sicker?) and, oh, I don't know, dying? Okay, that's a little dramatic. Honestly I don't know what would have happened.

The following Monday (24th) the captain of the platoon came to Sterling and told him that he'd almost missed too many days of training and that if he didn't get back out there tomorrow, they were going to have to send him home. That's what happens if you're sick. Sterling was unhappy about it, but medical hadn't cleared him, so he couldn't do much about it. On Wednesday they told him to pack up his gear, he was headed home. So far they had sent home perhaps a dozen guys in just the first two weeks. I wonder what their attrition rate is. The day that Sterling left, eight other guys reported to medical for similar symptoms as Sterling had. Not much of a morale booster there to see him being sent home.

He was suppose to fly in Wednesday night, but a snow storm in DC shut down the airport, so he stayed with my sister that night and flew in at midnight on Thursday. I'm happy to have him back. It was lonely with out him.

As for our future. Well, I don't think either of us is up for doing the Marines again. Third time's the charm? Yeah right. Guess I'm eating those words, huh? As per my beginning statement, I'm not yet going to disclose what is in store for our future, because with the way things change with us I'll be updating in a week to correct myself. Just know that we're okay with it. We both had enough time to think it over and figure out what other options we have and that it's not the end of the world. Life goes on.