No 2009 Tax Break....

Well, it's 10:13 a.m. on New Year's Eve and I'm thinking it's pretty unlikely that we'll be getting a 2009 tax break in the form of a new baby. Hank appears to be pretty content right where he is for the time being. Sorry dad... I know you would have liked to share a birthday with him!

It's been forever since I've posted a proper update. I don't have a good excuse, other than a house full of family and the greedy enjoyment of family time now that Matthew is on leave. So, let me recap the past few weeks in a nut shell...

Matthew arrived home on Dec. 8th and had a whopping 48 hours at home with us before he had to go back to the ship to stand duty for 24 hours. Boooo!!! With the exception of his duty days every 4 days his work load has been pretty light since homecoming so we are very thankful for the time he's been able to spend at home with us. We celebrated his 32nd birthday on December 13th (Happy Belated Birthday honey!!)

The very next day I woke up feeling terrible and ended up going to the emergency room that night with flu like symptoms (even though I've had both my seasonal flu shot and my H1N1 shot!) I was given some antivirals and antibiotics since I also had a urinary tract infection (my first one ever.) After two more days of feeling terrible with rigors, sweats, fevers, no appetite, and being achy all over I went in to see my OB for a follow up and she was kind enough to give me a 'kidney punch' during my exam which elicited a scream of agony from me. I was immediately diagnosed with pyelonephritis.
I was admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics. During my first evening there, I was placed on the monitors to check the baby's heart rate and to see if I was having any contractions. During the monitoring there was a deceleration in Hank's heart rate so I was moved to the labor and delivery deck for the next 36 hours for constant monitoring. The worst part of this monitoring was that it required me to lay on one side or the other the entire time which was very painful for my back. We were all very relieved when I got to come home after my two day stay.

My parents arrived on the 21st and have been great at helping us around the house, grocery shopping, Ally- chasing, helping us to get ready for Hank, and forcing me to rest.

On Christmas Eve we went to an early church service especially designed for Children then we hosted a family dinner here at our home complete with ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, 24 hour salad (which is not any sort of healthy salad!)and fudge pie! We opened a few gifts and did Christmas with my parents since they were leaving for NYC early the next morning to visit Ann's kids. After saying goodbye to them we headed over to Matthew's parent's home on Christmas morning where Ally was bombarded with gifts from all of us AND Santa! She had a blast though and has thankfully not yet grown tired of all her new toys!

Since then we've been laying pretty low and just trying to cross things off of our to-do list in preparation for becoming a family of four. We visited my OB on Monday and learned that I am 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced already. I could walk around like this for weeks or go into labor today, but either way, it's unlikely we'll have a 2009 baby at this point. Matthew and I are both okay with waiting until 2010 to claim our latest tax deduction- we just want little Hank to stay in mommy's tummy as long as possible so he can be a big strapping kiddo upon arrival. We're praying for at least a 7 pounder! We're still planning for a natural and drug-free childbirth and have hired a doula to help us accomplish this goal.

I'll do my best to update more regularly over the next few days/ weeks until Hank arrives but no promises. Facebook will probably be a better bet since we won't have wi-fi in the hospital so I won't be able to do any blogging.

Thanks for checking in, Happy New Year, and a special Happy Birthday shout-out to my Dad!

Merry Christmas!!

Here are a few pictures from the Martin/ Stahl family Christmas festivities! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!


Christmas 2009">

Guess Who's Home?!?

Homecoming">

T Minus 37 Hours

Blogging time has been scarce lately. Life has been quite busy preparing for a big homecoming on Tuesday... a mere 37 hours away! Today we had 5 cars detailed at our home (two belonging to us and the other three owned by two friends whose husbands are also deployed on the Bataan.) None of the cars had been cleaned for the last 7 months so it was a BIG job! We had a homecoming sign making party this afternoon as well so the house is trashed and covered in glitter! Good thing the cleaning ladies are coming tomorrow morning. Carpets will also be cleaned in the afternoon. My wonderfully helpful in laws are going to watch Ally for 5-6 hours tomorrow afternoon so I can finish up the last of my errands and put the finishing touches on our home.

We're expecting the USS Bataan to arrive sometime around 11am on Tuesday morning. Ally and I will be waiting pier side along with my friend Sarah and her kids. I'll do my best to get some pictures posted on Tuesday night so stay tuned.

In the mean time, here are a few pictures of my super cute kiddo and my super huge belly! Hard to believe that I still have another 5 weeks of growing to do! Somehow I don't think I'm going to make it all the way to January 9th!

Thanks for checking in and for all the warm homecoming wishes!

Lots of Smiles on a Sunny Sunday

Why are these two Martin girls so happy you ask??? Because they only have to make it through one more weekend on their own before Matthew comes home!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

The November Nor'Easter 2009 hit our neighborhood pretty hard. These first few pictures of were taken before the highest tide cycles hit. At it's peak, the water was over two feet higher than it was here but I wasn't around to photograph it because we evacuated to my in law's house.

side yard

backyard completely submerged

backyard off of deck

view of some neighboring apartments and some very unlucky cars. I'm told the white Accord wagon was almost completely covered with water during the highest tides!

View from the driver's seat as we fled Oceanview

Fallen tree after the Nor'Easter had passed.

side yard with lots of debris

backyard full of pine needles and crap once the waters finally receded.

Top water line was as high as our fourth step!

Wet, stinky garage with some seriously soaked drywall.

Over 30 inches of water in this part of the garage!

One of our big trees is now leaning pretty badly and will have to be chopped down just as soon as we can lay our hands on a chainsaw.

After a few days of good weather, a really hard working father in law, and some very generous volunteers from our church, I'm happy to report that our clean up efforts are nearly complete. We've done all we can do without professional help. Our insurance adjuster will be visiting on Saturday afternoon- hopefully we'll get the go ahead to hire a contractor to start ripping out the soggy drywall and treating for mold.

We feel quite fortunate to have suffered relatively minor damage compared to many of our neighbors. Our home is at the highest elevation on the street and is new enough to be subject to building codes that require the home to be built on at least a 6 foot crawl space if it is located in a flood zone. Our actual living space is dry and to our knowledge, the water in our crawl space did not breech the duct system or get into the insulation and floor trusses.

FEMA officials were here surveying the neighborhood yesterday to determine if our area will qualify for any federal assistance. It probably won't make much of a difference for us, but we're hopeful that Oceanview will qualify so some of our neighbors (particularly those renting and without insurance) can get some much needed assistance.

32.5 Weeks!

My 15 Seconds of Fame

http://www.fox43tv.com/dpp/news/local/localnews_wavy_hampton_Peninsula_Ocean_View_residents_ready_200911111258000296766

A Home For Hank

After much procrastination, I finally got around to starting, and nearly finishing, work on Hank's nursery- with a ton of help from my parents. This bedroom used to be our office. Over the past week, we have moved out the humongous table we used as our desk, a filing cabinet, and lots of pictures. We had a painter come in and paint the ceiling a lovely shade of light blue (which you can't see in any of these photos) and gave the baseboards and trim a fresh coat of white. We repurposed an old dresser from our guest room, added a changing table rail and had it painted white as well as two end tables that were in the guest room. All three red lamps were collecting dust in the attic and the couch was already in the room. The crib was purchased from Craig's List, was thoroughly scrubbed down and graced with a brand new mattress.

On my last trip to California, Ann and I found this fabulous fabric (seen in the quilt hanging on the wall) that has both helicopters and trains so we had a quilt custom made and found some bedding from Pottery Barn Kids that had a similar enough stripe to look cute but not be too 'matchy matchy.' We had lots of extra fabric, so we cut out and framed a bunch of little pictures in hand painted frames.

Finally, we got this great rug from Pottery Barn Kids as well- it really helps to pull all the colors together and finish up the look.

I'm still on a quest for the perfect pair of white floating shelves to flank the window. We're planning to use them to display our train and helicopter collections. It feels great to have the bulk of this project completed though. I just hope Matthew and Hank like it! Thanks Dad & Ann for all your hard work!

Wordless Wednesday

Have You Heard The One About The Angry Panda????

There is no real punchline to follow up the title of this post, but it just seemed to fit this picture! I thought I was going to be the smart mommy this year and do a dry run with the costume the day before Halloween so I would have plenty of time to photograph my precious panda before the big night. She was SOOOO NOT HAVING IT!!

I'm kicking myself for spending $50 on a costume from Pottery Barn Kids right now!

I guess I really can't blame her for being scared of the panda head after being exposed to this! I was trying to show her how cute and funny it could be, but somehow I think I just made things worse!

The only time she was reasonably happy was while she was running away from me and the panda head!

She finally gave up on running and decided to protest like this!

Even though it is supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow in Norfolk, I think we'll attempt to wear the whole get up (minus the panda head of course) and just pin a sticky note to her that says "stubborn panda" so everyone will know what she is supposed to be!

The moral of this story is.... don't waste your money on expensive costumes with head pieces until your child is old enough to be reasoned with (or bribed!)

Happy Halloween!

Pretty and Preppy in Plaid!

Good Karma and a Shameless Plug for Diapers.com

Before leaving for my trip to Tampa last week I noted that we were down to our last 4-5 diapers so I made a note on my calendar to order more the day before we were scheduled to return. Diapers.com ships next day delivery (for free with an order of $49 or greater!) After logging my standard order- 2 cases of Pampers Cruisers size 4 (an $85 value) I was able to relax in the knowledge that the diapers would be waiting on our front porch when we returned home last night. Except they weren't!


Not only was my diaper order missing, but there was a bin from the US Postal Service that should have held all of my mail for the past week that was completely empty! I totally panicked thinking that someone had stolen my diapers and my mail!


My first move was to call diapers.com to have them track the order. As I feared- their records showed that UPS delivered it at 1636 to the front porch. I explained what had happened and asked them to send me a new order for another 2 cases of Pampers. The lovely lady to whom I was speaking offered to send it free of charge. I thanked her profusely but declined the offer since it certainly isn't their fault that I live in a diaper/mail stealing ghetto! She felt so bad for me that she gave me a $20 credit on my account. (this is exhibit A that diapers.com rocks!)


After hanging up with Diapers it occurred to me that I really need to call the police and file a report since I'm sure my weeks worth of missing mail contained at least a few credit card apps and bills. Who knows what sort of identity theft could take place with that sort of information on the loose! Before I took this step though, I decided to check with my one helpful and awesome neighbor Sonja who lives up the street a few blocks. Low and behold- my faith in humanity is restored! No one stole my diapers- they were merely picked up by a thoughtful neighbor who was worried that they may be stolen if left out on my porch for too long! Her husband brought it all back down the street to me so now I'm not stuck diapering my daughter in newspaper today!


I didn't feel right about taking a $20 credit from diapers.com for stolen diapers that were not in fact stolen so I placed my second call to the customer service department. I told them to go ahead and send the replacement order since it's not like we won't use them eventually, but that they needed to take the credit off of my account since my original order wasn't stolen. The lady I was speaking with was so impressed that I'd called to tell them this that she not only left the $20 credit on my account, but she gave me a second $20 credit! (exhibit B of diapers.com awesomeness!) $40 of free diapers! That's nearly an entire jumbo sized case of Pampers free!!! Karma was on my side yesterday!

And as if that weren't enough to convince you that diapers.com is every mommy's BFF... here is further proof. Several months ago - I received a shipment in which I was shorted an entire jumbo case of diapers. It was on the packing slip, yet it was missing. I called the customer service department and they sent me a new case lickity split with no questions asked along with a lovely $10 credit for my trouble!

And all this from the comfort of my living room??? I'm one happy customer for life! Or at least as long as I have kids in diapers that is!

A Fun Fall-ish Weekend

I say it was a fun fall-ish weekend because on Saturday it was darn near 80 degrees which is pretty hard to imagine in the middle of October... but a fun weekend it was just the same!

These first few pictures were taken on Friday. Nothing special going on. Just the norm- Ally looking cute and showing off her belly button!


I think she is making fun of her big preggo mama in this picture!


On Saturday morning we went to a farmer's market with some friends. Although it was really warm and sticky, the kiddos had a great time. Here Ally is running around like a crazy girl trying to avoid capture and confinement in the stroller.

Ally and Hal had a good time riding around together and sharing a sippy cup. Several people asked us if they were twins! I don't really think they look that much alike, but I guess when you have two tow heads that are the same age people just assume. Like I'd be crazy enough to get pregnant again so soon if I actually had twin 19 month old kids!

After our visit to the farmer's market we stopped at the neighborhood park for some play time and got caught in a big storm. We took shelter under a big gazebo structure but after 10 minutes or so the kids were getting antsy and the rain wasn't showing any signs of letting up. My friend Sarah finally gave in and said "How often to kids get to run around in the rain?" Since it was 80 degrees outside we relented and turned them loose. Ally had a blast!

Wet kiddos! From left- Marlena, Christian, Ally and Hal.

The rain did cool things off a little bit so when we finally made a mad dash for Sarah's house Ally ended up borrowing some clothes from Hal to go home in. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a flash forward to what our little guy will be look like in snuggly navy blue sweat pants and a cool helicopter t-shirt!

On Sunday we took our standard pictures before church since we were both cleaned up and looking decent. Ally just got this cute new outfit and she got a lot of compliments on it. Personally, I think she's way cuter than a button!

If you took the time to read my previous blog post I apologize that it was so all over the place. Last Tuesday was a pretty rough and emotional day for me. After I posted that mess it just got worse when I fell into the bathtub while trying to bathe Ally that night. Thankfully none of us were hurt except for my pride! I think the root cause of all of my frustration was just being alone and missing Matthew. After an epic sob session I had a good chat with my family and was reminded by my dad that no problem is ever solved by worrying and that praying is a much better alternative. I've been trying to remember that when I get stressed out and I've come to the conclusion that I don't have to have all of the answers right now. I have no clue how we're going to make it work, but I have confidence that somehow we'll figure it out together. We're blessed with a supportive and loving set of family and friends and I know that with their help, we will succeed somehow!

And finally, after months and months of debate... we have chosen a name for our little boy! Henry "Hank" Nicholas Martin! It still sounds a little strange to me when I say it out loud, but I felt that way with Ally too so I'm sure I'll get used to it soon.

Thanks for checking in with us. It may be a while before I post again because Ally and I are leaving for a week in Tampa, FL at the Martin's winter home on Thursday. We're looking forward to a week of fun and sun (it's supposed to be in the upper 80's- low 90's!) and family time. My brother in law Brian and his girlfriend Amy will be there as well so it should be an interesting time with two pregnant gals living under one roof!