"I'm going home..."

After two hours of frustration on the phone with Delta and Bank of America, and three (yes, three) plane tickets later, I finally have ONE plane ticket to come home. It is a long story, so I'll try to be brief. I attempted to buy a plane ticket off of Delta.com. Not usually a hard task, since I have managed to do it in the past. However (comma), there was a problem with Delta's website. When I put in my credit card number, they told me the ID was wrong. I tried again. Then they told me the number was wrong. I tried again. Then they told me to just use a different card. So I called my credit card company (Bank of America). And they informed me that my card was working just fine, as I managed to purchase THREE plane tickets for the grand total of $1300.00 of pending charges on my card! Excuse me?! Ok, well I only need one, so can you take two off...No, you need to call Delta and get them to do that. So I call Delta. Delta tells me that I didn't buy any tickets, and even if I did the bank would have to remove them...Hmmmm. Ok. I call Bank of America back. They say no, you bought three tickets, I see them here and Delta has to remove them. So the nice lady at Bank of America decides to call Delta to straighten it all out. I am on three-way and listen to them go back and forth. Finally, Delta orders me one ticket and Bank of America removes the other three...Wow. That was difficult. So the ending result is that Olivia and I will soon be in New York! We come in about 10:30 pm on Monday, August 4th. And we'll stay for two weeks. We leave on Monday, August 18th. On the 18th Olivia and I will fly back to Valdosta for a couple days. On Thursday the 21st, we leave Valdosta at 6:30 AM to fly to Atlanta to catch our flight to Japan. It will be a straight flight from Atlanta to Japan, 14 hours, with a baby...Yikes.

And if you haven't heard the other story, Mike doesn't get to come home with us. He has to attend a class in Nebraska to learn about the new plane he will be working on in Japan. So, he will leave Valdosta on Sunday, August 3rd. And we won't see him until the 21st when we are leaving to go to Japan in Atlanta Airport. I know, it's crazy. But that's our life!

Busy Week!

Boy oh boy, we had an eventful week. It started with Aunt Dandy coming to visit, a few doctor visits, going to dinner a few times, Jolyn and Danny coming to visit, then Tiltetown today! Turns out Miss Olivia is allergic to milk...so we switched to soy formula and she is much better! She is even less cranky overall. Here are some pictures from the last week or so...


Olivia by herself:

Aunt Dandy and Olivia (shhh they're sleeping):

Aunt Dandy feeding Olivia:

Olivia @ 11 weeks:

And a little Rock Band - I'm trying REALLY hard:

Its Been a While!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been organizing pictures in albums...and I'm sick of it. I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to ship a box full of loose pictures to Japan, and there was no time like the present to start organizing and put them into albums. The only problem was I kept finding more and more pictures and having to keep starting over with the organizing part. So frustrating! I'm finally up to date. Not all of them are in chronological order, but I've come to accept that. And I now vow from this point forward to keep my pictures organized. If I print any out, they are to go right into albums/frames/whatever. I've already put them in order on my computer, so that is a start! Ok, now that's over, lets catch you guys up...

Olivia had her Two Month appointment! She had a clean bill of health. She weighed 12 lbs, and was 23.75 inches long. Doctor said she was tall, in the 91%. And her weight is in the 76%. But she has a small "nugget", only in the 17% for her head size. Doctor wasn't too worried about it though. She also got 5 shots! She was a trooper! She cried during the shots, but they didn't seem to bother her later on. Here are some pictures of her "war-wounds".

What a difference a month makes!

In the life of a baby, a month is a pretty long time! Look at how she changed. The post picture turned out small, but maybe you can still see the difference between the two.

2 Months Old Today!

Olivia is two months old today! I Can hardly believe it has already been 2 months. We took her monthly progress picture-here you go!

First 4th of July!

We didn't see fireworks, but we had a great 4th of July! It started with breakfast at home. Then we took Jillian to get a hair cut at Petsmart. Then we went shopping for a few odds and ends. And then we had dinner with friends. Olivia even wore red, white, and blue...Can you guess who dressed her?



And here is Jillian's new hair-do. They even put red, white and blue bows in her hair, although that didn't last long...
Before...

And After...

Olivia is 8 Weeks Today

But she was not in the mood for pictures, so we only caught a few. After pictures we went out shopping and bought her MP3 Player. Yup, that's right, she has her very own Mp3 Player (or MPP according to Nana). We had to buy it because she really enjoys music and it was the only way to get this thing on her crib to play for a long time. So now we can upload our own songs on it and even record our voice. She is probably the coolest 8 week old baby!




Look Daddy did her hair, didn't he do a good job?

Catching you up to speed- Part 2

6. I guess I forgot to mention I had to have my gallbladder removed! Oops! Apparently, I wasn't sick enough throughout my pregnancy and I had to continue to be sick afterwards. What I thought was really bad heartburn while I was pregnant, turned out to be several small gallstones. I was having random attacks that were very painful and making me very sick. So, I opted to have my gallbladder removed here. I figured it might be better to get it done here in the states than overseas. I had the surgery last Friday, and I am recovering nicely. Special thanks to Linda for sitting with Mike during the surgery, Paula for watching the baby and cleaning my house for me before I left, Holly for dinner on Saturday, and Brett and Kelly for dinner on Sunday. You guys are the best!

Catching you up to speed

We are more than half way through 2008 and there have been so many changes and more to come! Before I move forward with posts, I'm going to fill everyone in on all the changes. Lets see, where to begin...

1. After eight years in South Georgia, we are being re-stationed to Okinawa, Japan. Kadena Air Base to be exact. Wow! That was a shock. We are set to report there 29 August. I'm both excited and sad. I'm excited to be experiencing a new place and culture, but sad to be going so far away, and leaving so many behind.
Here are some pictures of Okinawa I found online. The photographer was Eric Stricland. How pretty!

2. We had Olivia! She was born on May 7th. She was 8 pounds, 8 ounces, 21 1/4 inches long. She is beautiful and healthy. Labor and delivery went well, although she was 5 days late. Her full name = Olivia Grace Ellis




3. I'm not working anymore! Well, at least for right now. I'm staying home with Olivia. Once we get settled in Okinawa, I may look into working on a base there. But this won't cause any problems with my licensure, and come December I'll be fully licensed as a Licensed Professional Counselor!

4. Mike was promoted to Tech Sergeant! I'm so proud of him!

5. And of course you all know the NY Giants won the Superbowl!! Mike includes this as one of the great things that has happened this year, so its only fitting that I include it in this post! As you can see, Olivia is already a fan.

I think that about covers everything!

The Baby's Room

Here are some pictures of Olivia's first room. We were going to paint the walls pink, but the very next day after we bought the paint we found out we had orders to Japan. Did you know you can't return pink paint?






A peek into her closet...these are just some of her clothes. The child has a huge wardrobe already!