one week down...

I just uploaded a the last of the pics from Phil's last days...

Goodbye calls

lovin potatohead's hat

365 days = 370 links (just in case)

Daddy and Nora

we survived the first week! we can survive the rest!

actually things are falling into a pretty good rhythm. nora is sleeping well. eating ok. and playing fantastically. i still haven't even pretended to do laundry or housework (other than what is required to keep us alive), but i am managing to get us out everyday and haven't really fallen apart yet! :) so all in all i think we are doing GREAT!

this morning i was able to talk to phil a bit. he is in wonderful spirits and keeping very very busy. he will be traveling a while more before settling into a place we can mail to, so hold off on care packages-an address is coming soon!

he made it

So he made it safely, but will be moving on to a new location soon. We won't know when or where until he gets there-how very "Army". So far Nora and I are hanging on, though I still have trouble believing we will be living an entire year without Phil. My positive outlook is starting to fade, so instead of whining, here are some pics of our week!

And he's off!

The Ambrose Early Easter Hunt

His flight left this morning...I will post safe arrival info once I get it.

Thankfully, my sisters, Terry and Kathy are here staying with me (to watch Nora while I dropped Phil off, and console me when I get weepy). My parents come this weekend. After that I have the mirad of friends and support we have managed to gather around us the past 8 months we have been here. I feel so lucky to have so many people caring about us and checking up on us!

1/2 a day down...less than 370 to go!

Videos GALORE!!

They are uploaded and ready to watch. In an extreme attempt to get them all up before Phil left, I have pretty much all our current family videos uploaded, but not organized or labled. Sorry for the mess! But if you really want to see Nora in action, I suppose you will muddle through, right? ENJOY!

new site...

In an effort to simplify, this will replace our homepage. All the links are here, and all the news will be here too. Currently, we are just preparing for the worst day of the year, waiting to start so we can get it all over. Sad time. But I am hopeful that the year will go fast, communcation with Phil will be better than expected, and Nora and I will be able to take this time as an opportunity to visit family and friends more.

Any effort to help me stay positive is much appreciated!

He will be gone by Easter...

Nora throwing rocks

Well, we are in the final countdown days! Block leave has came and gone (with a week long trip through Canada and the Olympic Peninsula). Yesterday, Phil became the company commander for the old company he did his PL time in. Now, half days are approaching, and then goodbye.

If you can't tell, I am pretty bummed by the reality of Phil leaving. We have been preparing for this for quite some time; but I think no matter how much planning we do, we will never really be ready to live without him for a year.

Nora and I plan to be busy little bees over the next year! Hopefully that will make it go faster- to all my military moms out there, any tips for deployment with a 2 year old?

Breakfast with Dad

Phil takes command

Kisses on the beach

The best laid plans...

So, we had big plans this year for our Christmas holiday. As most of you know we were stationed at Ft. Lewis for 3 years before our short Missouri adventure and now we are back here in the wonderful gray PNW. Before Nora arrived on the scene, we had always planned to do all kinds of things that are specific to this area. Hike in the Olympic National Forest, camp on the Oregon coast, take a trip north to Victoria, BC. But when the time came to do it we ended up backing out or changing plans or choosing to just cuddle on the couch instead. Well, this time was going to be different. We moved back here and we were going to do all those things. "Were" being the key word in that sentence.

Our Christmas weekend was supposed to be spent in Victoria BC this year, however we ended up cuddling on the couch once more. Early in the week both Phil and Nora were sick and it seemed inevitable that I would get sick too. In light of the money that was going to be spent, the energy we would exhaust trying to pack Nora around Victoria in the winter, and especially considering it was likely that all three of us would be sick for at least part of the trip; we canceled. And in true Ambrose family fashion we cuddled on the couch instead.

As it turned out, I did get sick. Thankfully, Nora is better, so it is only Phil and I battling our colds together. It was a cozy Christmas just the three of us. Someday we will follow through with our plans....someday.