Heaven is a donut shop called VG's in Cardiff, CA

Heaven is a donut shop called VG's in Cardiff by the Sea, California! Matthew and I usually war over the merits of Krispy Kreme vs. Dunkin Donuts but we can both agree that VG's is in a different league all together than those other corporate dough balls. VG's chocolate covered glazed donut melts in your mouth and is just chalk full of buttery goodness! After reading this cute post of Jana's, I decided that it would be fun to let Ally experiment with Matthew's favorite donut and send him pictures of her first experience with a little round piece of VG heaven.





In typical Ally fashion, she really didn't make too much of a mess and left the donut relatively in tact (BONUS- I had it for breakfast this morning!) but she did have fun sampling the chocolate off of her fingers. She made some funny faces at first, but kept coming back for more so I suspect she's going to be a chocolate lover just like her daddy!

Matthew loved the pictures and said his mouth was watering just thinking about that VG's donut! In an email tonight he told me to tell Ally that he loves her more than a million VG's donuts! Awwww.....

Wordless Wednesday from Sunny San Diego

3 Years

May 20, 2006- our wedding day. If I could do it all over again I. wouldn't. change. one. thing! It was the perfect day. These are a few of my favorite amateur pictures from the big day and from our honeymoon.

In the backyard before heading to the church

Our wedding party post ceremony

In the Navy now! These dashing men in uniform were all part of our sword arch.

This was our first night in our honeymoon suite in St. Lucia. We enjoyed beer or wine, appetizers, a cigar, reading and looking out at the ocean every night before heading out to dinner. It was wonderful! We were so tan too!

Randomly, there was a cannon on the grounds of our resort and I've always loved this picture of Matthew loading it!

We went on a deep sea fishing charter and didn't catch one damn fish- but we had a great time faking some pictures! Definitely worth $300!

This was taken after dinner one night. I'm thinking I may have had a little too much wine!

We'll be celebrating these three wonderful years apart this year for the first time but I know we'll have many, many more years to commemorate together.

Sunny San Diego Here We Come!

Ally and I are heading out of town tomorrow afternoon on our way to sunny San Diego, California! We couldn't be more excited and I for one will totally welcome the distraction. We haven't flown since January and Ally wasn't walking or crawling then so I think it's going to be a bit of a different experience this time around. I'm hoping that she'll be cooperative and will take a nap during our long flight but we'll survive somehow even if she's a total terror.

This will be our longest visit to San Diego- 15 whole days! I may take a bit of a blog break while we're out there but rest assured that pictures and details of our adventures will resume in June.

These pictures were taken yesterday after church. I didn't intentionally dress us alike, in fact, I didn't even notice it until someone pointed it out to me. Guess I was just daydreaming of some warm sunny weather on a dreary rainy day.

Thanks for checking in!

OUCH!!

Our little peanut got her first real boo-boo this weekend. On Friday I dropped her off at her grandparents so I could go close on our refinanced home. She was walking in their living room with her blankie and she stepped on a corner of it, tripped, and face planted into the speaker.
I joking threatened Ray and Dee that she was never allowed to visit their home again but the truth is, this could have happened anywhere. Now that she's walking all over the place she's into more and more stuff and is going to end up with some bumps and bruises. Thankfully she's still a pretty happy kid in spite of her battle scar!

Murphy Got It Right

Ally and I have survived our first 24 hours on our own! Not like we haven't done it before or anything, but I'm claiming the small victories. Lord knows I need them today! It's been one of those days... you know the kind, when your really think that Ole' Murphy got it right when he said "anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible moment!"

It started out early this morning when I drove downtown at 7:30 am in traffic to go to the Children's Hospital so I could get some prescriptions filled for Allison. I called them before I left to confirm that they were open but when I arrived I discovered they don't fill outpatient prescriptions until 9am. We weren't about to wait around for an hour so we turned around and headed home. Allison skipped her morning nap for the second day in a row which didn't allow me my normal time to get things done and relax a bit. During lunch time Ally gagged on her pureed spinach and potatoes and threw up all over herself and her highchair- getting the cute outfit I'd just dressed her in all nasty.

Our dog Angus had an appointment at the vet this afternoon- when we arrived we had to wait for a long time because the vet was attending to an emergency. Ally was being an absolute terror since she skipped her nap but we stuck it out. The last few times we visited the vet it has cost us an average of $500! I started off our consultation with the doctor by telling him that I love my babies, but I can't spend that much money today. I refused a few needless (I hope) annual tests and thought we were going to get lucky, but by the time we paid for the exam, a biopsy of a lump on Gus' chest, and some prescriptions we still owed $264- OUCH!! It took forever and a day to check out and Ally went in to full fledged melt down mode in the middle of the lobby. I couldn't do anything to console her- she just needed a nap which she thankfully took as soon as we got home- giving me some much needed time for a hot shower and some couch time.

The one bright spot in our day came when I checked out bank balance online and discovered that the first installment of Matthew's aviation bonus arrived in our checking account. Either that, or there was a Monopoly-style bank error in our favor! First we pay off the car, then it's hello granite counter tops!! So exciting! Don't worry, we're not spending it all and have already consulted with a financial advisor on the best way to invest the bulk of it, but we wanted to have a little fun with it too.

In other news, I'm on a bit of a treasure hunt. Yesterday I found two sweet love notes from Matthew. One was inside a partially consumed package of diapers and the other was in between my pillows. They provided just the encouragement that I needed to get through a difficult day yesterday. When I thanked him in an email he told me there is still one more note to find. I've been looking all over for it, but have yet to discover it's sneaky hiding place. I used half a pad of sticky notes on Tuesday leaving them in his pockets, his shaving kit, backpack, notebooks, boots, etc. Just little notes to let him know how much we love him and will miss him. He usually finds most of them within the first few days but every once in a while one stays hidden for a month or two and provides a pleasant little surprise. I hope it doesn't take me that long to find my third and final love letter!

Lastly, in Ally news- we saw a specialist in rehabilitative medicine who specializes in children with feeding problems on Monday morning. It was a 2 hour and 20 minute consultation during which time they observed me feeding Ally pureed foods, feeding her a bottle, and playing with her. They they did all sorts of developmental assessments and a physical exam. She's on target or ahead of schedule with her motor skills and fine motor skills but is a little behind with speech which is common in feeding disorder children. The doctor also discovered something a little strange- one of Ally's ears is smaller than the other! In 14 months of intense study of this kiddo I have never noticed this anomaly, but as soon as it was pointed out to me it was as plain as day. It doesn't detract from her cuteness one iota, but it's worth investigating. Here's the kicker... because she has asymmetrical ears, they're going to do an ultrasound of her kidneys. Huh??? Yeah, that's what I said too! Apparently the ears and kidneys develop at the same time in pregnancy- around the 5th to 8th week. Thus, a genetic problem in coordinating development at that time, or a non-genetic problem, such as an infection, might affect the development of both areas at the same time. That's what I've been able to surmise after some Googling anyway.

Anywho, the ultrasound won't happen until we return from our San Diego trip in early June so it'll be a while before we have any results. The doctor told me not to spend much time worrying- they were just being on the safe side and ruling out all possible issues. We're also changing up Ally's medications (hence the disastrous trip the the CHKD pharmacy this morning) and they gave us a bunch of samples of this super powered nutritional drink that is packed with calories that I mix with her formula. Ally weighed in at 20 pounds even in her birthday suit and 30 inches long and happily, is now back on the growth charts! Go girl!!

Finally, here is one more picture that didn't show up on my Wordless Wednesday post yesterday- not sure why, but I thought I'd post it today.

Whew- long post today! Think that gets me all caught up- for a few days at least! Thanks for checking in with us.

P.S. In case any of you want to contact Matthew while he is deployed his address is:

LT Matthew V. Martin

Air Dept. V-3

USS Bataan LHD 5

FPO AE 09554

email: martinma@lhd5.navy.mil

He'd love to hear from all of you I'm sure. He is going to be kept pretty busy out there with his job and a tough watch rotation but he'll get back to everyone eventually. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday- Goodbye Daddy

Waiting......

Life at the Martin house has been busy lately. As we wind down our time with Matthew, we've been packing in as much as we can to hold us over for the next seven months. Thankfully he's only been working 1/2 days this week so we've had lots of extra time together.

We've been dining out with family and friends, doing lots of last minute shopping to get him ready to go, finishing up some little house projects, and cooking all of his favorite meals. It's been a nice week and we're thankful to have had this time together, but we're both ready for him to get going now. I know that sounds strange, but a 7 month deployment is sort of like the 5 ton elephant in the living room. It's hanging over our heads and giving both of us a sick feeling in the pit of our stomach. It's time to get on with it so we can start our countdown until his return.

We'll enjoy a few more family dinners, a last Sunday together at church, Mother's Day brunch with friends and they we'll say goodbye and start working on getting on with our lives apart for a while.

We found out Friday night that the ship is going to be leaving a day later than expected on Wednesday because one of the ships deploying with the Bataan is still being worked on. This extra 24 hours would have been nice to have, but Matthew has duty on Tuesday so now it means he'll be stuck on the ship for his last night at home. Disappointing, but we'll manage somehow. Ally and I will take him one last home cooked meal for dinner and hang out for a while before parting ways.

In other news, Ally has an appointment with a new specialist on Monday morning for another feeding assessment since her therapist feels like we've hit a bit of a wall and aren't making much progress. I'm trying my hardest to be optimistic and hang onto the hope that we'll make a breakthrough soon. For now though, we are still stuck with bottles and pureed baby foods. No food with texture will pass her lips and she isn't interested in a sippy cup except to throw it around.

No blog post would be complete without a few Ally pictures- so here they are!

That smirk means she's up to something!

Ally loves to help with the laundry!

This is not her most flattering picture, but I included it anyway because she finally grew out of a pair of pants! If you look closely you can see that the button on her jeans has popped open and her little pot-belly is sticking out!

Ally moved into her 'big-girl' car seat last week and is delighted to be forward facing- finally! She loves to look out the window and to be able to see us when we turn around to stare at her which we do way too frequently when driving!

Ally used crayons for the first time at Macaroni Grill on Thursday night- she was pretty proud of herself!

Of course she was much more interested in putting them in her mouth than actually coloring!

Hewie, Dewie, and Louise

Three Mallard ducks have taken up residence in the park across the street from our front door. They are quite friendly and willing to come very close to humans so we decided to feed them for the first time a few days ago. Allison was so excited about it that it has now become a 3 times/ day activity! Hewie, Dewie, and Louise know a meal ticket when they see it so they have been hanging out pretty close to our home ever since. I can't take the credit for their cute monikers- Matthew came up with them, but I think they're perfect. Hewie is the boy with the busted feather that sticks out funny, Dewie is the other boy, and Louise is obviously the girl of the bunch. We haven't quite figured out their family dynamic yet, but I'm leaning towards a ducky love triangle. They all seem to get along well and they absolutely delight Ally so I'm happy to keep dishing out the bread & cheerios.
Here are some pictures of our new friends- please pretend not to notice that our front yard is a weed ridden dust bowl!

This is Ally looking out the door for the ducks

Close up of Dewie

Hewie (L) and Dewie (R) and Louise in back

Our squawky trio!

Freaking....

***Updated 5/6***

It seemed like I waited forever, but Matthew finally got home last night. I met him at the door with tweezers in hand and tore off my shirt (under other circumstances it may have been sort of exciting!) I watched in the mirror as he pulled the tick out of my back- it didn't hurt too badly, but that bugger was really hanging in there! Surprisingly, it wasn't too fat so I have a new theory about how it came to take up residence just below my shoulder blade... When we were at the lake I had a laundry pile right next to the dog's bed in our room. I think the tick came in on one of the dogs, gorged herself then nestled up in the laundry pile on my navy blue t-shirt. I washed all of the laundry when we got home but yesterday I wore my navy t-shirt again, only this time, it contained an unexpected visitor. Yuck!!! Anywho, I still have an icky red blotch on my back that sort of looks like a mosquito bite, but it doesn't look like any of the pictures of Lyme disease that I found so hopefully I avoided it!
Thanks Megan for the rubbing alcohol suggestion- I knew it killed ticks once you pulled them out but it never occurred to me to try pouring it on the tick. Wish I'd read your comment sooner- it would have saved me about an hour of freaking out time!

Original Post follows__________________________________

Just found one of these stuck in my back and I can't reach it to remove it. Matthew is not home from work yet and I'm FREAKING OUT!!!! This little bitch (the females are the red ones) has most likely been there since Saturday or Sunday when I was at the lake tromping around in the weeds trying to get the dogs to poop somewhere that I wouldn't have to clean it up. I found one on Angus yesterday and removed it with my brand new tweezers- ewwww!!!
I'm doing Internet research on tick removal and Lyme disease and thought I'd throw a quick blog post up there to distract myself from the fact that this nasty thing is currently fattening up on my blood and transferring all sorts of nasty germs into my germophobic body.
Yeah.... it didn't work- I'm still Freaking with a capital F!

Lake Gaston- Revisted

We made another family trip to Lake Gaston last weekend to visit with Matthew's parents and his brother who came up to visit from South Carolina. We had some beautiful weather and lots of fun. Three dogs and one baby kept us all busy and on our toes! We have 8 more days until Matthew leaves for deployment and lots of things to do and people to see in the mean time.
More on our adventures soon!