Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.

Hello hello! Seriously, I probably should not even have a blog anymore since I am always forgetting to update it -- however, I do enjoy writing. Promise -- so here's a few updates. :-) We are now 5 days away from my Mother's Day vacation to Florida with Evelia, and I absolutely cannot wait!!!!!!! It has been way too long in coming, that's for sure. I haven't even seen my stepdad since last July when my parents moved to Florida, and that's a long time. We will be there until nearly the last week of May. It will be a good "break" away from New York, too. Life has been so stressful financially, physically, just about in every way possible. It's crappy. :( I wanted to do something fun while I'm in Florida, but I doubt Evelia will remember Disney World (not to mention it's like 8 hours away from my parents' house), so I'm looking around for fun things to do in Southwest Florida. I'm thinking maybe a nature preserve or something like that. I know Fort Myers has some good shopping outlets, but those are only fun if one actually has money to spend, you know? I can't believe its my first Mother's Day this year!! It's truly surreal. I don't think it's quite hit me yet. I'm excited, though. I already got my mom her Mother's Day present, and am waiting until I get to Florida to add the second part of her gift. It's small, but I think that it will be appreciated, and even funny in a way. :-) I finally got a new phone!!! I still have the same number (why change it, and I finally have it memorized). I know that we will be leaving the 518 this year, but I see no reason to change my area code, since really this is where I am from. I can see it creating potential problems for job interviews in different states, but I'm sure that could probably be explained. It's so nice to have a phone where the front buttons work! On my old phone, the numbers 5, 2, 3, 1, and 0 had stopped working, which meant that in order to make a call using those numbers, I had to open my phone and dial said number. Also, when I opened the phone and hit "send", I couldn't close the phone to talk on it since it would drop the call, and so I had no choice but to use speaker phone, and this was quite grainy-sounding and resulted in quite poor sound quality. So needless to say, my new phone is a blessing to me. I already love it. It's not fancy, it doesn't have internet, but it does the job for me and what we use our phones for, it's perfect! We renewed our cell phone contract, so now we are with Verizon til 2014. It has great nation-wide coverage, which will be great when we move, and we were happy with the plan that we are on. Granted, I'm sure there are cheaper phones and cell phone providers out there, but right now we have decided, "why fix what's not broke?" If anyone has my number, feel free to text me, and I'll gladly respond. :-) Michael and I have really been trying to strengthen our lives and our marriage in a variety of ways. One of these ways is to incorporate a "family fitness day". So far this consists of going to Congress Park or Spa State Park and walking/jogging with the baby. Michael wants to lose about twenty more pounds before he leaves in August (My God its coming up faster than I'd like!!), and I've gained about 8 pounds of my baby weight back since I have stopped breast-feeding. I would like to lose about twenty to thirty pounds as well. One of the ways that I am considering losing weight is by doing the South Beach Diet. However, I think that I am more comfortable with the idea of cutting down the number of carbs that I eat, rather than eating none at all. Yes, carbs stick to you and turn into sugar, but it also gives you energy. I think that it would be fine in small amounts. Besides, I don't think that I could just quit it cold turkey. I've been doing better with caffeine consumption, too. I've managed to cut out the sugar in my coffee and have just been using creamer to taste. I'm aware, a ton of calories, but I hate black coffee with a passion. Like, seriously, it's tar to me. Blech!! My husband leaves in exactly 100 days. 100 days. That's just .... mind-blowing to me. I've been trying to mentally prepare myself, but I know that I can't. We're trying to save as much money as we can before he leaves since there will still be bills to pay (oh joy). We're also trying to pay down a few things so there's "one less" of items that I will have to pay while he's gone. I worry that I will break down when he does leave. I worry my cats will freak out and start having bad behaviors, Perseus is very attached to Michael, me too, but he has cuddle sessions with him all of the time. He won't really cuddle with me unless he feels like it. Dyson doesn't really care to be cuddled, and just enjoys being very vocal and telling me about every buggie he finds in the window and freaks out trying to get. He loves Evelia, and will touch his nose to hers. Percy likes her, but not when she cries - then he leaves the room. :-) I worry our daughter won't remember him while he's gone, and that when we go to graduation she will have a nervous crying fit. I know there are pictures. I know there is repetition. However, she'll be 5.5 months when he leaves, and like 7 months when they meet again. I'm nervous. Sad, in a way, too, that he will miss out on that time of development with her....but the thought of our family, our future because of this new endeavor, and the pride in my husband's voice when he speaks of new adventures, training, and milestones he reaches to accomplish, it over-rides all of that. I want it for our family. I want it for my husband. I want it for myself. I guess it's just like how kids don't come with instruction manuals, neither does military life. On the job front, I have all but given up. I'm still subbing (just got cleared finally about two weeks ago to start work again), but am trying to find a job for when June is over with. With Michael's current work schedule, I can only work Mon-Wed as it is, and that's if he doesn't have scheduled over-time on those days. In June, the school year will be out until September. That's an entire summer that I will need to be doing something for income. I have sent my resume to a variety of places (well over 40), and have only had 3 phone calls back, two jobs that I couldn't set up an interview in the time frame they wanted due to not having child care. I'm ready to scream. With everything, I must remember that I'm blessed, even with friends few and far between. C'est la vie. PS: I can't figure out the spacing on this new blog interface, so everything is all clumped together. If you've actually read this, kudos. And, a photo to make you smile.