we’re moving…
in 2 weeks. ummm… yeah. two weeks from now movers will arrive and pack up all of the junk that paul and i (and now jackson) have accumulated in the nearly 3 years we have been in this house. our house… our first house… our bungalow… ((((tear)))) why on earth am i feeling nostalgic about this? i have been sooooo ready to leave jacksonville for a while now. soooo ready for paul to have a change of scenery, a change of perspective, just a change damnit! i’m used to moving… growing up i moved every few years. and it’s been a few here in jacksonville, so let’s peace out. atleast that was how i was thinking about this until i told a dear friend our news on the phone last night. i listened to my friend tear up, and though she cries often (and i love her for it), i realized that my news was making her cry. i was making my friend upset… and my heart hurt. jacksonville has been good to us. the people in jacksonville, the friends we have made and the friends we came here with have been good to us. but time marches on, i suppose. jackson will never remember being here… he won’t remember his first room, or the creaky noises the old wood floors make when we tip toe around, trying not to wake him. he won’t remember mommy walking out to the shed to clean his poopy laundry because the washer and dryer are out there and not in our house. jackson won’t remember 2813 lydia street… and that’s ok. he’s not supposed to. we are. paul and i have our precious memories in our first house stored away in a safe and secret vault we keep in our hearts. moving in from our apartment just 4 blocks away… sarah and i landscaping the front yard (my body has never hurt so badly)… my dad painting my favorite florida room… lily’s first birthday party… grandpa jack (jackson’s namesake) trying to figure out the old wiring… mom cooking and freezing casserole’s before jackson’s arrival… paul fixing the cabinet in our 1 bathroom every time i yank too hard and the door comes off… getting red 3 days before paul left for japan… bringing jackson home from the hospital, our family complete. i guess that’s why it’s called moving. people are constantly moving- from one place to another, one state of mind to another, one room to another. it happens. in the meantime, i’ll store my nostalgia away for a bit, lock it up and keep it safe for another day when i feel like being a silly sap.
thoughts on thanksgiving…
TONS of pics from jackson’s first turkey day!!! both of our families thoroughly enjoyed the magoo on his first turkey day. he was quite the entertainer during dinner at nana and pop’s house, then it was on to grammy and granda’s house for dessert, where jackson tasted his first pumpkin pie and, being the tree hugger earth day birthday that he is, he tried to hug grammy’s christmas tree. 
while paul and i had so much to be thankful for this year, i couldn’t help but take some time to laugh about the past 9 (yes 9) turkey days that we have had together. “back in the day,” paul and i would struggle with turkey day… wanting to have the meal at our own houses… he would want his mom’s cooking and i would want mine. so, geniuses that we were at 18 and 19 years old, we ate two dinners, making sure to satisfy both of our holiday meal needs. ~ IDIOTS!!! the years went by, and paul and i learned to eat dinner at one house and dessert at another, and then the following year we would swap houses. as time went on, we started doing thanksgiving at nana and pop’s house because paul was gone for the last few christmases, so his last holiday before deploying would be at his parent’s house. and now, as luck would have it, we actually have paul home for christmas this year! CRAZY!!! anyway, it was just amazing to me to take some time and actually think about the past years… where we were… and we were are now. i guess the holidays will do that to ya.
pics from annapolis
sorry these are late… we had such a great time staying with paul’s cousin, heather and her family a few weeks ago. jackson enjoyed playing with cooper and mason, and especially loved all of mason’s toys! our magoo was such a trooper with our constant traveling. each day we would drive nearly an hour to get to annapolis, and jackson did great on the drive and while we searched for a home. now if we could only find a home… thanks to heather, ross, and the boys for providing us with all the comforts of home and wonderful support! to think this time last year we were grieving over the thought of moving so far from family (japan) and now here we are moving closer to great family and friends in the dc area… can’t wait to get there guys!
the travelin’ turkey
wow! we have been insanely busy and it dawned on me last night (as we crashed in bed after yet another 7 + hour drive home from atlanta) that i hadn’t updated the blog since annapolis. one day has turned into the next day and now here we are at december 1st. geez!
i guess i’ll back track to annapolis and give a little insight into that whole scenario… long story short, we will be in base housing for a while once we arrive in january. the parts of town we looked at were so unbelievably expensive and our funds are so unbelievably low. we’re cool with it though because while i vowed to never live on base when i married paul, i now see we are in need and i’m down with it for the following reasons… the apartments that we will be in have been recently renovated to now include all hardwood flooring and redone kitchens complete with granite counter tops, gas stove tops, and new appliances. very cool in deed. the other thing that sold me on these base apartments was the little bulletin board at the bottom of the staircase in the building, which had flyers posted with a picture of a cute couple that said “need a babysitter?!” done and done! while we’re in those apartments, we’ll hopefully be gaining some moolah $ from people that will hopefully be renting our house in jacksonville since we can’t seem to sell it to save our own lives. so that was annapolis in a nut shell…
as for thanksgiving… we were in atlanta. next year, the families will come to us. the amount of gear that we need to travel with is insane. and we only have one kid! (and a 90 lb dog) thanksgiving was great though. paul and i have A LOT to be thankful for this year, so having some time with both families was nice.
and finally, since this blog is all about jackson, here’s the latest with his eating issues… it seems that in my negligence to properly update the blog in the last few weeks, people have been assuming that the zofran is the miracle drug that has cured him, and that we no longer have a need for kennedy krieger and johns hopkins. HOLD YOUR HORSES PEOPLE! first of all, i apologize to you for not updating you as consistently as i have in the past, because of course you would check jackson’s blog and think “oh… no news must be good news.” and in a sense, it is. we are in a place with jackson’s feedings that is very good right now. he is eating orally, which he hasn’t done in a long time, so that is really good. his daily intake consists of 4 to 5 bottles a day of about 4 to 6 ounces a bottle, plus jarred baby food throughout the day. in a 24 hour period, jackson usually takes around 30-32 ounces of food. this is so great because at his worst, just a few months ago when we hospitalized him, we would put him to bed at night on only 16 ounces. the fact that this amount has doubled is so wonderful…. but keep in mind that his size has doubled as well. jackson has not gained weight, and is still weighing in at a little over 17 lbs. he is in the 12th percentile for weight to height, and while the rest of his body continues to grow as it should, he does not seem to gain weight properly. while we are postponing surgery for a g-tube until we see the doctors in baltimore at kennedy krieger, we are not getting consistent oral feedings from jackson. one feeding will be great… for example, he’ll take a 6 ounce bottle, then eat a 4 ounce jar of baby food, and another 4 ounce jar of fruit. that happens maybe once every other day. and then another feeding will consist of 2 ounces from a bottle, and a 4 ounce jar of baby food. with his feedings being so hit-or-miss, we are in need of consulting with the experts at kennedy krieger still. the zofran is doing wonders, and we are grateful for that, but our problem is not solved… the symptoms are being treated, allowing us to have successful feeds here and there, which is a lot better from where we were with the ng tube feedings… but there are still times when jackson doesn’t eat. i long for the day to see our son break this 17 pound marker that seems to be plaguing us. but seeing jackson have good oral feeds keeps both paul and i encouraged, knowing that things have been and could be much worse.
in the coming weeks, we will be traveling back to atlanta for christmas and to move, so stay tuned! the travelin’ turkey is doing well and looks forward to seeing everyone in the coming weeks that he missed over thanksgiving. ps- more pictures to come from thanksgiving weekend! the magoo just woke up, so i gotta go!
Have a Sip
