Saying Goodbye....Twice

I will try to put into words what it's like saying goodbye to your husband and best friend for half of a year. The one thing I found during our last deployment, is that every family is different. Every goodbye is different. Every "welcome home" is different. What goodbye is for us, may be completely different for someone else. But, for all of us, goodbye is goodbye. It's never easy. It's never taken lightly. It's...walking away from your other half and doing everything on your own for 6 months. And not just walking away, but sending them halfway across the world to a war-torn country to do the job they've been training for and then wonder if when they come home, you both will be the same person as when they left. There are so many things you want to say to each other, but it's almost as if words will never be able to explain it, so you don't say anything. I love you will just have to do. I feel that I should have something profound to say to him or to pray for, but I seem to be at a loss for words. The good thing about that is, Shawn already knows how I feel and what I want to say without saying it and vice versa. More importantly, God knows what it is we need to ask for...what specific things we need to get through the moment; the deployment and HE WILL give them to us.

So, as we got up 5:00am Thursday morning, with heavy hearts, ready to send him off and get this deployment underway - and start our countdown to him coming home - we had no idea that the weather would be too bad for them to get out of North Carolina.

We drove quietly onto base and parked at the squadron.

We said our final I love you's and prayed for their safety on the flight out of here.

Kissed Caleb goodbye.

Hugged in the drizzling rain and got into the drivers seat and drove away. (Some families stay together until the last possible minute. For us, we think this is the best way to do it. There's no long drawn out morning goodbye. No one else to sit and watch you as you cry together in the squadron. No sitting by yourself as he runs around doing last minute things. Just the two of you sitting quietly in the car, together, alone).

I got home around 6am and couldn't decide if I wanted to just stay up or go back to bed. Wrigley wasn't making any noise, so I decided to just lay back down....jeans, sweatshirt, shoes and all. I left the bedside light on, not really wanting to fall back to sleep.

At 6:21, the phone rang. It was Shawn and all he said was, "Come and get me." I said, "Are you serious?!" (Shawn) "Yep." (Elaine) "Seriously?!" (In case you missed it, we were hit with a huge storm and the weather was just too poor for them to get out of here). Another guy from his squadron and his wife live on our street, so they just brought him home. So, we had a whole day together, in which we had a great lunch, laid around the house and watched a movie, grabbed Chinese for dinner and then realized the night was once again here. There wasn't much we could say.....because had already said it al the day before.

Once again this morning, we got up at 5, drove him to the squadron, said our final goodbyes and I love you's and sent him on his way. The rain was coming down so hard this morning I could barely see the car in front of me, so I half expected another phone call saying he was coming home.

We're already 2 days closer to him coming home!!

As Shawn said in his last post, thank you for all of your prayers and support! I will keep you updated as I get the information. My social calendar :o) begins tomorrow with a few girlfriends and that is one of the great things about deployments! The friends you make at each duty station will always hold a place in your heart, but there's something to be said for the friends you make and interact with during a 6 month deployment. Please be thinking about all of them too!

Here we go Again

I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate all of the encouraging words over the past few months. Knowing that we have a strong family, friend, and church support network really makes going away much easier. I look forward to talking to everybody over the next few days before shoving off. I will send out my email when I get to where we are going. Take care of Elaine and Caleb and Wrigley...I will talk to you all soon.

Shawn

Making Memories

We all have memories from when we were kids and I think that most of them are because we have photographs to look back upon. I think that once you get married and start your own family, you want to make sure you create memories that will always warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. We wanted to make sure that we recorded a few more memories for Caleb before Shawn left this week. I think that the last couple of "The Capps Family" are my favorite.

(I'm not sure why they all came out small and I can't figure out how to edit them larger...sorry)

Shawn also decided to video tape himself reading a few books for Caleb to watch. How sweet!

I can't wait to make more memories once Caleb's here and Shawn's home safely!

First Big Purchase

I finally broke down and bought a "few" baby outfits a few nights ago. We've been, or should I say I've been, looking for just the right coming home outfit for Caleb, but have not found that perfect little one. So, while I was hard at work the other day, as I usually am, I decided to look at some online. Now, I can admit I have expensive taste and sometimes give into that...but I am trying really hard not to do that because I don't want our kid to be spoiled. (I won't mention that we just bought a leather LazyBoy recliner for his room :o) Anyway, I have only bought 2 things so far for him...a cute little footed sleeper for $9.99 at J.C. Penney and a hat and bootie set that was on clearance at Target for $1.24. That's right, One Dollar and Twenty-Four cents!!! Gotta love Target. Back to my story. I finally found what I was looking for. Something blue, simple and classic. The only problem was that I found more than one I liked. More like I found 5 outfits and I just coudn't decided which one I liked. That night I told Shawn I had finally found a few outfits I liked (he could care less) and he said, "Great! Show them to me so we can decide which one we want to get." I then proceeded to tell him that I already bought them...ALL of them. I won't mention how much it cost me, but let's just say that the Baby Gap isn't cheap! Here's a couple..........

See, what did I tell you! Once I saw those two and couldn't decided I knew I should have just stopped there. (P.S. the grey hooded one didn't come in newborn size, so that should have deterred me, but it didn't, I just bought the next biggest size)!

One another note, I truly believe fall is in the air! This morning when I left for work, it was only 63 degrees and the highs for the next week don't get above 80! I can't wait until the highs are only in the 60's. I love fall!!

30 WEEKS - UPDATE

Shawn and I had our ultrasound and non stress test appointment this morning. Come to find out, that hard knot I keep feeling push into my ribs is actually his little bottom. Now I don't feel so bad about patting it out of the way! He is looking good; head down, measuring within 2 days of his due date and 3 lbs and 8 oz. I will be having the non stress tests performed every week until I deliver from here on out. Shawn's supposed to be leaving next Thursday, so maybe he'll get to go back to the dr. with me next week as well.

Here are the newest pictures of Caleb.......

YES!!!

As you can see, I finally figured it all out! I am proud of myself and finished playing for awhile. At the moment I thought I had lost everything, I was done. At least it's there, it's a fall theme and now I don't have to worry about it....until I want to change it for Christmas ;o)

We have our ultrasound tomorrow and we can't wait to see Caleb running around in there and make sure everything looks great. Hard to believe that I am 30 weeks and I'm sure my due date will be here before I know it. Shawn is set to leave on the 25th, I have family coming down for a baby shower 3 weeks later and then just 5 short weeks later is when he will, hopefully, come!

I would ask for continued prayer in the weeks to come. First and foremost for Shawn and his squadron's safety in travel and in country time for the next 6 months. Pray for his peace since he will not be here to welcome Caleb into the world (well as we'd like - we are setting up a video conference thru the hospital and he will hopefully get to see him as soon as he is delivered). Pray for my anxiety to be small once he leaves and that I will be reassured daily of Caleb's life. Pray for me and my mom as she will be staying with me from the baby shower until he is born. It's been awhile since I've lived with my parents :o)!! And I know there's more I could ask for, but these are the ones that are weighing heavy on our hearts. We have had a great couple of weeks together...not at all like before he left last time. It was all too new to us, with unknowns and frustrations and this time we seem not to be letting all of the nonsense get in the way.

I will be sure to get new ultrasound pictures on the blog soon!

Trial and Error

**Update 9/15/08** So, I am still playing and have found myself in a little over my head. I did something this morning, which I'm not sure how it did this, and now I can't make any changes to it. I am awaiting help back from customer service. Until then, all you have to look at is this boring green page.

**UPDATE** In case you didn't realize, the tabs at the top of the page (about, pictures, contact, etc).....were all part of the page I downloaded and I can't figure out how to get them off.

It has taken awhile, but I finally figured out how to download new blog templates from the internet! (Yeah, me!) And a fall-like one at that! What I haven't figured out is how to modify them or why it took out all of my cute stuff in the side bar. Oh well, at least I'm learning.

Playing again

As I mentioned when I started this blog, I get bored with things very easily....maybe it's because I grew up with a mom who rearranged the house on a regular basis and I can't stand things being the same for too long, I don't know. Anyhow, I am bored with our blog page, so I'm going to be playing around with it for awhile. I never have enough time to just sit and learn how to do fun things, so maybe I'll try doing that one of these days. Until then, I'll just keep making small changes until I find something I like.....or until I get bored again!

Today I'm feeling very fall-like :o)

September's Official "Belly" Pictures

As the time gets closer to Caleb getting here, I am feeling larger and larger! Despite this, I still want to document my growing belly:o) We have a doctor's appointment next week (I'll be 30 weeks) where we'll get to have another ultrasound and a nonstress test. This will be the first of many of these and he's basically going to perform it just so Shawn will know what it all involves. It'll be great to get to see him again!

Asheville, NC

We had a great time on our vacation to Asheville. I have always heard that it is a beautiful area and I completely agree. We got to spend time with family, see The Biltmore, go hiking and spend some wonderful quality time together. The only snag was that on our last day there, our car was hit in our hotel parking lot and then left for us to find it an hour and a half later. The hotel got it all on video, but the license plate number was unable to be seen. Oh well, what can you do?

Here's our group that we spent time with....(Starting back left - my parents, Shawn's Aunt Patti and Uncle Jeff, Shawn's mom, sister-in-law Holly andShawn's dad. Front left - Shawn's cousin Rhianda's boyfriend, Ricky, Rhianda, niece-Adarrah, my sister-Jennfer, me, Shawn and Shawn's brother Drew.)

My parents at the Biltmore.

Jennifer and Adarrah at Chimney Rock overlooking Lake Lure.

Climbing rocks after hiking at Chimney Rock.

Our cabin just outside of Asheville in Weaverville, NC.

Shawn and I at Mount Mitchell State Park. The 66 degree temps were wonderful!!

For those of you back home, you will get a kick out of this! We just had to make the short drive to Mars Hill College and buy some stuff. We got the baby a sippy cup that says "I Love Mars Hill". I was cracking up when I saw it.

Hiking at the North Carolina Arboretum. This was a great park, almost botanical garden-like, with 10 miles of trails.

Picture of the car. You wouldn't think this damage would be that bad, but you can't open the passenger's side door now. Just one more thing to add to our list before Shawn leaves:o)

Shawn got to go home for a short weekend to see Cody's football game and tour his campus. This was the first time he's been able to go there in the last four years.

They surprised him with a baby shower after the game. One of his aunts found this cute little bomber jacket in an airport and it just so happened that it had a Prowler patch on the back. What are the odds? Thanks to everyone who got us some really great (and cute) things!

Please pray for the next couple of weeks to come as we get prepared to send Shawn off. I think it's harder this time knowing what is to come...but we are ready to get this deployment underway, welcome this little boy into the world and bring him back home safely.

Baby Name Unveiling

Our predeployment leave will end this coming Tuesday and while I am sitting at home watching tv to make sure I don't fall asleep thru Tropical Storm Hanna's rains, winds and tornado warnings, Shawn is in Indiana enjoying some fall-like weather, family and college football. I'm just jealous that I'm not doing the same thing. And while I'm relaxing here tonight I'm finding it hard to believe that in only a couple of weeks he'll be leaving again. I think it's to the point that we are both ready to push him out the door (not really) and get these next 6 months over with. You can bet that we will be enjoying every minute we have together until the day he leaves.

I have a lot of pictures and I'll get those up in the next few days, but for now I wanted to let you know how we told our family the baby's name. We decided to tell everyone and wanted to do it in a fun and different way. We thought of a couple different ideas until we came up with putting it on Wrigley's collar. We put it on there on Friday after my parents arrived and within the first half hour, my mom asked about his "name tags". We didn't want to just tell people...we wanted them to actually look at it and figure it out. So, we didn't say anything and just waited. And waited...and waited. Finally, the morning they were all to leave, we decided we had to just tell them. We told our niece, Adarrah, to tell them the baby's name was on Wrigley's tags. Of course, the mom's took off for him (the only time they want to love on the dog :o). Come to find out, Shawn's mom, dad and aunt Patti all had talked about it and assumed "Caleb Everett" was the veterinarian.

Here's the story of how we came up with his name......

Shawn's rule, ever since we were chosing names for our last pregnancy, was that we were not allowed to have any double c names. So, I never even considered a C or K name. I have liked Everett since we were making lists for boy and girl names 2 years ago. I kept suggesting it as a first name and then Shawn came home one day and said, "How about Caleb Everett?" I liked it, but wasn't completely sold on it. I decided to open the Bible and read about Caleb. When I looked him up in the back, this is what it said..."showed unwaivering faith". We both immediately said that that summed up this pregnancy for us. In order for us to get through these last couple of years, this past deployment and upcoming deployment and now for our new baby boy and Shawn not being here for his birth....well, we know we are not always perfect, especially in our walk with the Lord, but we have completely relied on our faith in Him and His plan for our lives. We know that even when we are not strong, He is ALWAYS faithful and that is why Caleb stuck with us. Caleb never waivered in his faith and we hope we don't either.

So, we are praying that in just about 10 short weeks, we will be able to meet our new baby boy, Caleb Everett.

Please take a few moments to complete this survey...

Is this the vet's name or the baby's name??