The Big Move!

We left Flagstaff, AZ and continued heading east. The next day we stopped just east of Albuquerque, NM for the night. Not the greatest hotel, but it was just for a night, and we did not really care. Anything to not be driving at that time. The next day found us heading for Denver, CO. Little note, this was Sunday, not just any Sunday, but SUPERBOWL Sunday....and where was the Superbowl being played....DENVER.
We pulled in to our hotel in Denver, and it was surprisingly quiet....give it a few hours, the game is still in progress. We relaxed, grabbed a bite to eat, and called it a night...we knew what the next day would bring, and we wanted to be up early for it.
On Monday morning we woke up early, walked the dog and hit the road. We were making the longest trek of the trip....Denver to Omaha....10+ hours of flat, boring, nothing....ok not nothing, random corn fields, cement mixers for landmarks, and yea not a lot.
We finally came to what we thought was our stop....

Offutt AFB is located in Bellevue, NE, which is a suburb of Omaha. Jon's office is actually located in Bellevue, NE, so this makes it a little bit easy. We arrived on base, and immediately went to check into the base lodging, so we could call it a day....Nope! Since we had the dog with us, they could not give us a room on the base, but they did have a dog friendly accommodation for us, about 2 miles away....we will take it!



 

Yep, this is the Air Force's version of pet friendly accommodations. We were given a 3 bedroom house in their base housing as a temporary house until we figured out where we were living....I could have stayed there and never moved again!

 

 

As you can see, Em and the dog are happy about no more travelling too!

 

Our temporary housing last a whopping 3 days, and we were moving again....yea, I didn't count how many times we moved in that short time frame....I was a little too preoccupied with a baby and a dog!

We accepted base housing, and were given the keys to a different 3 bedroom house in the same neighborhood. Moving day was a little hectic, as not only were our belongings that we shipped from CA coming, but so was our shipment from Japan. Oh, and the weather, well it was cold....



 

The move went smooth, nothing came broken and the house is full of boxes! Em didn't seem to mind, she was her happy self!

 

Now comes the fun part.....putting furniture back together and trying to make this place feel like home....for the next 3 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

January 2014....We are moving....AGAIN!!

It's January 2014, and we now know where we are moving. We had an idea that we might be moving to Las Vegas, NV and everyone was OK with that idea...we would be only 3 hours from home, so that was OK. Well, in true Marine Corps fashion, we DID NOT get Las Vegas, NV, but instead got orders to Recruiting Station Des Moines, IA, and more specifically, Omaha NEBRASKA (Tracy's first thought, "where the heck is Nebraska"). Did I mention we were leaving in 17 days....grrr!

 

 

Before we moved to Japan, we stored a lot of our belongings in Granny's back garage, so before we could move to Nebraska, we had to pack up what furniture and appliances we did have, and get those shipped. Emmalynn joined in on the packing fun...poor girl has no idea (and neither do we) how many more times she will move.

 

 

 

 

Just before we left for Nebraska, Em turned 6 months old. As you can she, she is sitting up on her own, and has started to feed herself some solid foods.

January 17, 2014....Not only is it our 4th anniversary, but it is MOVING DAY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loaded up both cars, the baby and the dog, and headed east to Nebraska. We had a plan that we would go to Flagstaff, AZ for the first night. We pulled in a little late, and were a little worried that the weather might get bad...heck, it is January and we are up above 5000ft, and it is known to snow in Flagstaff. We met up with Tracy's cousin Tricia and her family for dinner, and a familiar face. We had a good night, and all were ready for bed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



October 2013 - California

October was a month of adjusting. Jon was off to recruiting school in San Diego and Tracy & Emmalynn were adjusting to living at Nana & Papa's house for the next few months.

As you can see, Emmalynn adjusted just fine. She made herself right at home, and approved to napping at Nana & Papa's.

October would be Emmalynn's first Halloween, so of course we had to go to the pumpkin patch

Emmalynn also had to have her first pumpkin carved....thanks to mom!

 

 

 



November 2014 - Not super busy. Jon attending classes Monday - Fridays, and came home on Friday nights for the weekends. Emmalynn and I spent our time going for morning runs, and visiting with family and friends.

December 2014 - Another month that was not super busy, other than the holidays. Emmalynn grew like a weed, and started to become very active. We were given an exer-saucer, and so Em was able to work on her standing, jumping and hand-eye coordination.
The flu ran through the house, and everyone except Jon and Emmalynn got the flu. Unfortunately, Tracy got the flu on Christmas Eve, so she missed out on family visiting, and had to be quarantined away from the baby for the day (not fun at all).

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014-2015 Updates....I am so behind!

Where did I leave off....I guess I should retitle my blog....The Macdonalds are BACK!!!

September 2013 (Iwakuni, Japan) - Emmalynn was almost 6 weeks old when we got a phone call from his mom in Iowa letting us know that his dad was in the ER with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). Unfortunately, Jon's dad Mike did not make it. One thing the military does efficiently, is get overseas family members stateside in emergency situations.
Luckily for us, Emmalynn's passport arrived several days prior, and the entire family was able to fly home the next day to be with the family. We flew from Hiroshima to Tokyo to Seattle, WA to Las Vegas and then on to Omaha, NE. We were able to be with Jon's family for 10 days before having to return to Japan.

Jon and Emmalynn were able to get some father/daughter cuddle during a thunderstorm in Wisconsin

October 2013 (Iwakuni, Japan) - October was a crazy month for our family. We found before Emmalynn was born that Jon would be going to CA for school....what we did not know was that Emmalynn and I would be going as well. That's right, the entire family was leaving Japan. We sold some furniture prior to moving, and figured out how everything would be packed.
When the day came, we found out that Tracy & Emmalynn would be flying out of Hiroshima on the 18th, but that Jon would be flying a military flight on the 19th....that's right, Tracy was flying 16 hours with a 3 month old by herself!

Our pack-out date was scheduled for October 18th....how does this work! The movers came at 0800 and started packing very quickly and efficiently. A friend took Tracy & Emmalynn to the airport, so Jon could stay back and help with the pack-out.

Tracy & Emmalynn made the long flight to LAX, and were met by Tracy's parents. Jon followed the next day, with a long flight and several delays, but made it to San Diego in one piece!

As you can see, the family is back together again, and Bugsy was getting used to his new sister.

Long & Overdue UPDATES!!

Holy Moly....the last update was April 2013...so much to catch up on!


July 2013
July was an exciting month for us. Tracy worked up to 36.5 weeks of her pregnancy, and July 5, 2013 was her last day of work before the baby was due (her Dr. wanted her to take off a week sooner, but Tracy wanted that holiday pay!).
We left for Yokosuka on July 7, 2013 and it hit us that we are leaving as a couple, and next time we come home, there will be 3 of us....CRAZY!
Jon & Tracy had an appointment on July 8 to meet one of the physicians and have an ultrasound to check on baby girl. The Nurse Midwife said everything looked great, and she estimated baby girl to be weighing in somewhere around 8 pounds....GREAT.... we only have 3.5 more weeks to go, at 0.5 pounds per week, we are looking at a 9-10 pound baby! We left, and scheduled our next appointment for 10 days later, and weekly after that!


To keep the boredom from creeping in, and to help baby girl think about coming out, we walked...ALOT! We would walk every morning (while it was cool) for about 2 hours, and then go out again at night as it cooled off.
Tracy was completing a class in her Masters program, so working on her final kept her a little busy.
Early Thursday morning, July 11, Tracy was very uncomfortable, and could not sleep (probably because her final was due the next day, and she was not finished yet). Tracy got up around 5am and decided to use the quiet of the morning to finish her final. The entire time, she sat on a birthing ball as her lower back was bothering her, but this was nothing new.


After finishing her final paper, Tracy jokingly said "Ok baby, I am done with school for the summer, you can come any day now". Tracy was pretty tired after working the last 5 hours on her paper, so she took a late morning nap. After she woke up, she and Jon took a walk around base, and hit up the commissary for a few groceries (and to cool off in the AC). That night, the two of us decided to go to a popular steak house in town called the Station. It was several old train cars turned into a steak house. Tracy was starving, and when her steak came, she saw what she thought was a rogue plop of potato, and took a big bite....OOOPS, it was horseradish!
After dinner we took a walk along the bay, and hit up the Starbucks for a cool treat before going back to our hotel for the night.


7/11/2013 11:55pm
Tracy woke up to go to the bathroom as usual....no big deal. Came back to bed, and rolled to her right side to get comfortable. Felt a pop in her back, and thought "thank goodness, my back kink finally went away"...WRONG!


7/12/2013 12:00am
Tracy up to go to the bathroom again, except this time, her water breaks as she stands up (although she thinks "did I just pee myself"...nope! Tracy wakes up Jon, who by the way, just went to bed at 11pm.


Jon calls the hospital to tell them what is going on, and the hospital tells us to come on over, and they will check to see if Tracy's water really did break.
Tracy, being the tough one, decides that she will walk to the hospital, as it is a 5 minute walk. That is until the first contraction hits, and Tracy just about hit the floor....on second thought, call a cab.


We get to the hospital around 1:00am, and the staff meets us at the nurses station. They take Tracy in to check her, and instead of just monitoring her, they admit her into room 1 of labor and delivery.
The Dr. comes in and checks her, and she is only at 2cm, and baby girls head is not engaged....it may be a long night. The contractions were pretty intense right from the start, and no position they put Tracy in would relieve the pain. The nurse and corpsman realized that baby girl had rotated herself into a position where the hardest part of her head, was against Tracy's tailbone....holy back labor.
At one point, the nurse gave Tracy 100mg of Fentanyl, and it did not touch her pain. Jon went out to talk to the Dr, and overheard them discussing Morphine, as they did not want to give an epidural too early (it can stall labor).


7/12/2013 4:00am
Time for an epidural (THANK YOU GOD)...too bad it only worked on the right side of Tracy's body, so she still had a lot of back pain on the left...but we will take it.


7/12/2013 6:00am
The Dr. comes in and checks Tracy and says "Ok, you are at 8, but again, her head is not engaged. I think you are going to spend most of today just getting her to drop"...GREAT!


7/12/2013 7:00am
In walks Dr. Sischy, who introduces himself, and the nurse Rebecca. They talk about how things have progressed, and him and haw over whether to check me, or just let me hang out. The Dr. decides what the heck, lets check her. Dr. Sischy says "Oh my, you are at 10, let's practice a couple pushes, and see if we can get the head to drop"!


2 pushes later, he tells the nurse to break down the bed, and for me to get ready, as we are going to have a baby soon. A few more pushes to go!


7/12/2013 7:49am
Emmalynn Joy is born! Tracy pushed less than 25 minutes, and delivered a healthy baby girl.
Emmalynn was born at 37.5 weeks weighing 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 21.5 inches long...so much for an 8 pound baby on Monday!

Emmalynn Joy

Just a few minutes old
July 12, 2013 at 0749
6 pounds 12 ounces
21.5 inches long
Born at Yokosuka Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan

Happy Mom

Happy Dad

Getting some bonding time in while mom takes a nap!

Sleepy girl

She is the best thing...

Family Picture

Just waiting for discharge paperwork

We were all discharged on Sunday, July 14 but were not quite ready to leave Yokosuka for Iwakuni. Emmalynn had a few appointments over the next few days to monitor her jaundice, and to allow
us time to relax with our new baby.

We are moving...yet again!

How could I forget to update everyone on our "new" news! Every year the Marine Corps selects Marines that are getting close to the 8-9 year mark. If a Marine has not completed a "B" billet, they are looked at...the list is called the HSST List, or the HRST List, don't ask me what this means. Ok I googled it, and this is what I got "HQMC RECRUITING SCREENING TEAM (HRST) TO HQMC SPECIAL DUTY ASSIGNMENT SCREENING TEAM (HSST)".

Whatever, the list came out, and Jon's name was on the list. Basically, it means that since he has not completed a "B" billet, has needs to put in an application for one, and his options are DI (Drill Instructor), Combat Instructor, Recruiter, Special Security, and I am sure there are a few more, but I do not remember. So with Jon being selected, he had a short time to get all of his paperwork together. Not only did he have a lot of paperwork to complete, but he needed to make sure all of his medical and personnel files were up to date.

We discussed the avenue Jon would pursue, and decided that for our future, recruiting would be the best option. He submitted his package, and the waiting game began!

FAST FORWARD 8 weeks - (like I mentioned, I forgot this update)
The day that Tracy picked up her Medevac Orders for Yokosuka, she ran into one of Jon's Marines in the parking lot of the clinic. The Marine asked if Jon had heard anything regarding his selection, and I mentioned that I did not think the results were out....well guess what, they came out that day, and Jon's name was on the list.
I immediately ran to my car, and called Jon. Our conversation was short but very exciting. Jon did not even know that he was selected...go figure, always the last to know. When Jon finally found the results, it had his actual class date posted. Jon was selected for FY14-1. When I asked what this meant, Jon said it was the first class of the Fiscal Year 2014...guess what, the Fiscal Year starts at the end of September. Jon came home and did some researching, and found out that his class is scheduled for October-December 2013....that is now 5 months from now...WHOOOHOOO!!

What does this mean - Jon will leave Iwakuni, Japan sometime in October for San Diego for an 8 week training. Baby girl and I will stay behind, and take care of business here, waiting for final orders.
We should know 3 weeks into Jon's program where our next duty station will be....again, it is anyone's guess as to where we will wind up, all we know is it will be somewhere in the US!!