I have ORDERS!

Well, Donovan is feeling much better (Thank GOD). He's been in Daycare all week with no problems except that he's really clingy now because he was so babied while he was sick. Last night he didn't want to sleep at all. He kept waking up and wanting to be held. I don't know what to do to "break" him of it other than to let him cry. HA! That boy is as stubborn as his dad and I put together. :) He just cried and cried and cried. Finally at 2:30 in the morning I just made him a bottle and told him "Enough. I've had enough of this. Hush and go to sleep baby boy...Mama needs to sleep and so do you". Soooo...he didn't wake again until I got him up to get ready for our day.

About my title...I have been awaiting orders for a few months now. Sgt Barrett finally just called my Monitor today and told him the situation (I'm a prior service Marine and I've been sitting here waiting on orders since January 3rd). The MSgt (my Monitor) said "Ok...you wanna go to Parris Island or Iraq?" Not in those words...but that was the gist of it. I "kinda" want to go to Iraq. But Donovan is still so little. If he were older and we could explain to him "Mama is in Iraq helping people who needed her help", it would be different. As it is, I might have to go to Parris Island without Mark and Donovan for at least 8 months! See...Donovan is listed as Mark's dependant...not mine. So when I leave, Donovan might have to stay with his daddy. I was almost in tears today just thinking about it. Donovan is my boy. He likes hangin out with his Mommy. He likes his daddy tons too...it's just that for 9 months, he's been primarily my responsibility. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have to change any diapers or get up in the middle of the night for several months. LOL!

Okay...not to change the subject, but....I have a story to relate here. It's been nagging me and I actually was a little defensive over it last night when it happened. Let me lay the groundwork. I have a friend. She's a Christian. I'm a Christian too. Her husband is a Warrant Officer in the Navy. Their neighbor is also a friend of mine and HER husband is a nice guy who happens to be a Commander in the Navy. Welllll....the other day I was on the other side of the river and when I was finished doing what I needed to do, I found that I had about 45 minutes to kill before the ferry would arrive so I could go home. So...I decided to kill the time by getting something to eat at Subway. While standing in line, the Commander (the neighbor's husband) comes and stands in line behind me. In proper Marine Corps fashion, I greet him "Afternoon, Sir, how are you?" He returns the greeting with "I'm well, Corporal, how are you?". At this time I say "I'm well, how are your kids?". He then actually LOOKS at me and says "HEY! Jenna, I didn't recognize you...wow! You're back in huh?" (I was in Deltas). We chitchatted some while ordering and recieving our sandwiches and then we say good bye. I go and find a table and start eating. The Commander is looking for a table to sit at too and seeing that I am at a table with no one else, he says "Hey Corporal, do you mind if I join you?". Of course, not. Who am I to tell a Commander he can't sit in an empty spot I am not occupying? So we chit chat some more over our sandwiches about our kids and work...etc.

Here is the strange part. I mentioned in an email to my friend (the Christian friend) that I'd eaten lunch with the Commander. Last night I got a phone call...she read me the riot act for having lunch with another woman's husband! WHAT? It wasn't a DATE for heaven's SAKE. I was completely taken aback. I didn't understand where she was coming from. She said "You just don't know how someone might feel about something like that". Okay...but it was more like two military people sitting at the same table. It was NOT a man and a woman sharing intimate conversation over a cozy little luncheon. I just had to think of all the times I'd eaten lunch at the same time...and...at the same table as a married man.

Then she went on to talk about how I dress. She said "I just think that you want men to look at you". "You have to be mindful of their salvation. You don't want to be the reason that they are sinning". I was once more taken aback. Because all I seem to wear anymore is either track pants and a tshirt or my uniform. I DO like to look pretty. I probably won't ever be the Christian mom who wears long jumpers with long sleeve shirts underneath with Peter Pan collars. But I also don't see where what I've been wearing for the past several months isn't pretty modest. Granted...I do have a problem with cotton shirts that fit fine until you wash them more than once. I have a long waist. I'm constantly pulling on shirts to try and stretch them back to where they fit when I tried them on in the dressing room.

Anyway...I talked to my husband about these two things...I asked him if he thought that what I wear is too sexy. I think a man will tell his wife if he thinks that her clothing is too revealing (except in the bedroom! LOL!). And I asked him if he thought it was inappropriate for me to have said "Be my guest Sir" when the Commander asked to sit down. He said "Oh...if you'd told him "no, sir" you'd be ostracized...no one would talk to you. And that's not your personality anyway. You talk to anyone...from a bum on the street to the King of Persia, it would tear you up". And he's right! SIGH....I've prayed about it because she told me that it was Holy Spirit beating her up about it. I was hurt. I don't dress like a hoochie. ANYWAY....

What a crappy...

It's been a shitty few days. Wednesday evening I got off work and went to pick Donovan up at Daycare. He looks like he's miserable and the "teacher" tells me that he's been clingy all day. So I take him and he snuggles up under my chin (the boy is sweet, but not much of snuggler). I go to walk out the door and he pukes all over himself, me and the floor. Poor little guy! Sooooo we go home and I baby him all day the next day (thank God I have an understanding command right now) and then Friday everyone (except Recruiters and the Band guys) starts their '96. I take Donovan to the Urgent Care Clinic because he's vomitting. They just confirm my suspicions of "The Flu". They give me Phenergan suppositories to stick up his bum. Then...Saturday he decides it'll be fun to start having diarhea AS WELL AS vomitting. Oh wonderful. Soooo...we try to push the fluids. He's not having it. But for most of the day he's at least trying to be playful. Then, after his nap (like number 3 for the day) he's acting kind of listless and whiney. We take him to the Emergency room. They took blood from him and tried to start an IV. They stuck the poor baby 4 times and no luck getting an IV started. They would have used the vein they took blood from, but they blew it getting blood from him. There is nothing in the world like having to help medical personnel hold your baby down so they can stick him with needles for his "own good". He's just looking at me like "you're my mama, why are you letting them hurt me?" Hubby's just as upset as the baby. I'm sick too...and tired and all I want by this time is for them to either admit the baby or let us go home! They tell us to try to get him to drink Gatorade an ounce at a time. Oh fun! He only puked three times during that little fiasco. But he started to perk up. He's sitting there on the gurney bouncing and playing with toys saying his favorite "words" "mama, dada, nana, nono, blablablabla" and while not looking like the picture of health, certainly making me feel like "great, now they are gonna think I haven't offered him anything to drink at all". The doctor let us go home around 1 am and both Mark and Donovan drift off into peaceful slumber. That is NOT to be had for me. I laid there and coughed so hard it made me puke a few times. I tried everything I could think of, Vicks Cough (that crap is a waste of money!), Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu (with Cool Burst), a teaspoon of honey, cough drops...you name it, I tried it last night. I was worried that I was keeping Mark awake until I got to coughing so hard one time that I nearly choked on a cough drop. Laying there, thinking "wonderful, I'm gonna die and he won't even KNOW it until he rolls over to a dead wife and a screaming baby in the morning!" Finally got to sleep (with out coughing fits) at 5 in the morning. At 8 or 9 hubby wakes up and cheerfully says "let's get up!". HA! Let's NOT! Thankfully, I got a nap this afternoon that helped me feel better for a little while.

Ahhhh....

It's so beautiful outside today. The past week was so nasty...gray, rainy, windy and cold (for New Orleans).

Soooo....the cat got stuck in the baby's room last night (I shut the door to keep the cat OUT at night!) What did I find under the baby's crib? Cat puke. Lovely. She likes to eat and then bounce off the walls. Did she offer to clean it up? No...'course not!

Donovan's in a great mood today! He was jibberjabbering all morning. He's taking his nap now. I have to get groceries later, I hope his cheerful mood lasts all day!

Email me if you know anything about child custody laws... I need to bone up on that.

Later that evening...Well...I decided to go on base today and get some groceries. I left the house at around 1 pm and just got home about 45 minutes ago! HAhahaha! I never made it to the base. I had forgotten that there was a parade today on General Meyer. Guess who got stuck for an hour and a half in traffic on Shirley? Me and the baby. This child was SO good the whole time! I couldn't believe it. I kept waiting for him to turn into a pumpkin. I went to Walmart and they were insane too. I needed groceries though and a few other household and hygiene items for the family so I braved it...Donovan was being an angel after all. Usually, decisions like that bite me in the ass real quick. Not this time. We were in there for 2 hours! He was sweetness and light the whole time. Flirting with little girls, baby girls, old women...just little smiley boy. Until I got him into the car. Then the tears and the crying started. The pumpkin has arrived! LOL! He only had one nap all day too and he held out that long! What a little trooper! I'm so proud of him!

While sitting in traffic I was actually parked a time or two in the street cause I got sick of holding the brake pedal. We weren't moving anyway...why bother? Anyway...people sometimes have parties at their houses during Mardi Gras (like if the parade passes by your house). So I'm sitting there kind of daydreaming, staring absent mindedly into someone's yard where there are several people gathered...and what do I see? A woman...about my age...possibly a little older sporting the one hair cut everyone makes fun of, a mullet! WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? Big bangs are almost forgivable...I mean, I know a few people who had their glory years during high school and just never bothered to come into the next decade. But...a mullet? Really, come on. She couldn't have even passed it off as accidental. The hair in back was down to the middle of her back and the hair on top and in front was more of a guy's hair cut. Absolutely hideous!

My first post!

Sitting here thinking...baby is sleeping. What a blessed life I have. Someday it will be perfect...or as near to it as the Good Lord will allow. Welcome to my Blog! I am Jenna, aged 29 years, Christian, United States Marine, mother to two beautiful sons, (ages 5 years and 8 months old...the five year old lives with his Daddy in Nebraska), wife of one handsome man. I am starting this blog to document my happy thoughts, sad thoughts, rants, raves and praises to God.

Donovan is my 8 month old...he looks just like his daddy. Well, both my boys look like their dads. Donovan waved bye-bye for the first time today. He's such a happy go lucky kind of baby. Smiles for everyone. He does have a temper though if you don't attend to his needs immediately. LOL...the kid's a slave driver! He wants a bottle NOW...if not sooner!

It's MARDI GRAS season ya'all! "Hey mista, throw me some beads!" Have fun all you revelers...it's too doggone cold out there for me to stand around with a baby on my hip just to get beaned in the nugget with a string of beads. Those suckers HURT when they hit you in the head or face! My husband is in the Marine Band here in New Orleans. Guess who's out there in the cold and rain playing his instrument for your enjoyment? My husband! I hope ya'all like what those Marines do for you!

I have this kitten. She's a Bengal...pure bred. And she's NAUGHTY. She steals the baby's binky and the nipples to his bottles! Chews the ends off of them! She got in the tub the other night while I was filling it for the baby. Splashed around for a minute and played then seemed to remember, "Oh crap! I'm a CAT! We don't like WATER!"