Wednesday, July 28, 2010

in the last ten years...

we've had...(in no particular order)
stolen glances.
a high school sweetheart love.

many long distances separating us...and many reunions.

two years of up and down love.
four years lost.
another four wonderful years.
1 deployment together, one more apart.

hundreds of handwritten love letters, and emails, and just a few texts.
two over the moon pink line moments.

one world crushing loss.

one big joy in a tiny bean.

two homes of our own.

six various photoshoots.

and one olan mills church directory pic.

a few coordinating outfit occasions.

countless tears, but even more laughs.

the feeling of seeing each other become a parent.

one man's best friend and a mr. jude.

one "real" anniversary.

four countries, and four states of residence between the two of us.

an over the phone proposal.
a last single kiss.

a unforgettable walk down the aisle of our church.

one happiest day.

followed by a close second.

the best honeymoon ever complete with a private island, and swimming with dolphins!

a few nights on a porch swing or two.

many bike rides...some in formal wear.

two high school dances, two grown up balls, and not enough dancing!

countless kisses, hugs, and "always...always." exchanges.

my how we've grown. so happy to grow together.

i love our love.

ten july 29ths.

it's been ten years since we met and first dated. how far we've come! don't mind me as i get a little mushy and reminisce.

ten years ago...we met at camp. i was 17, he was 16. he took me on my first date (hello walmart, burger king and auto zone parking lot. what can you ask from a high school boy) i had my first kiss. he asked me to be his girl.

nine years ago...we anticipated our long distance relationship coming to an end. i would be moving to lafayette to start my freshman year at purdue.

eight years ago...we were broken up, but still thinking about one another. often. continued to over the next few years.

skip ahead...four years ago...we had just reconnected thanks to a social network. he sent me flowers from italy. we emailed like crazy and planned to meet up at Christmas when he was home on leave.

three years ago...we had just gotten engaged. he was in afghanistan and i had just moved home from texas. he proposed on the phone one morning before leaving on a mission. his dad gave me the ring at dinner that night, and i didn't get to thank him until he was back.

two years ago...we were just a few days away from our new start. our married life. enjoying summer and spending time together. house hunting and looking forward to the georgia move.

one year ago...i was pretty pregnant and we couldn't wait to meet our little bean. we were soaking up the last few weeks of just us.

this year...well, we're apart again, but let's not talk about that. (i do like the army...occasionally)

it's been a good ten years. i've said it before, but i wouldn't change our story. i do wish we didn't lose out on those few years, but they helped mold us into who we are. our relationship is stronger for it.

i more than love you baby!

...always.

(you'll have to endure one more mushy post. coming soon!)

Monday, July 19, 2010

full time fluff. part two.

okay. so once we got the diapers the first thing we had to do was prep them. that is the worst part. waiting to use them! they have to be washed 5-6 times. the more times you wash them the more absorbent they get. we usually use tide free and clear, but i can't find it over here so we are switching to charlie's soap. i've heard great things about them and thought we'd try it out for all our laundry. we'll see if it works for us.

after they were prepped we were ready to go! the diapers we use have two different sections of snaps on them. the bottom snaps change the size based on weight. the snaps across the top change how tight it is in the waist. eliza at 18lbs (give or take) is currently in medium, and has been since we got them.

i just keep them all snapped to the medium size. so when we want to change her diaper it's as easy as snapping 4 snaps. this diaper goes on just like a disposable. no stuffing pockets with inserts, no extra cover. it's an all in one diaper. also the easiest to transition a not so sure husband into using!

now for cleaning. if a diaper is just wet we toss it in a bin like this from ikea. (or we will once our stuff get to korea, for now we are using a bucket near the washer) at home we kept it in her closet right near the changing table. i have a bottle of odor remover handy just in case it gets a little stinky, but so far we haven't really had to use it. well, i have, but mostly on the stinky drains in our apartment.

if it's a dirty diaper we head to the toilet. here is where most people back in the day would squirm, hold their breath, and invent a disposable diaper. now, they make it so easy. first, this is only for formula fed babies, or kids on solids. breastfed baby's diapers can go straight to the wash. just another bonus of breastfeeding. we didn't start cloth on eliza until she was on solids, so this has been part of our routine. she has what we like to call poop that plops. so you plop the poop and then use this handy sprayer to rinse off the extra. sure we hold our breath on occasion, but we never have to swish the diapers or anything. it's easy.

then we wring out the diaper a bit and it goes to the bin to wait for wash day.

we have enough diapers that we can get by 2 days, sometimes 3 between washes. obviously we wouldn't be able to do that with a newborn and the amount of diapers they burn through. or if we have two in them at once. we currently have 24 and that is just right.

when we are out and about we have a small wetbag that we use to stick the diapers in. comes in handy for trips to the pool too!

the washer and dryers in korea are a little different than back home. i do one cold wash and one hot wash with an extra rinse cycle. at home i would put them in the dryer. here i hang them up with a fan blowing on them. the dryer here would take all day to dry a load of diapers. this way we are saving on our electric bill too. after they hang dry i do toss them in the dryer for 30min just to fluff them up a little.

i hope i covered everything you wanted to know.

i guess i am supposed to make mention that we were not given anything for these posts. not from bumgenius, charlie's soap, or ikea. i'm just a fan of all and wanted to share!


and just because...

some links from my research...
we bought most of ours from cotton babies.
a community to ask questions or trade fluff. diaper swappers.
where i started my search. lots of information about the different types of diapers, folds, products and common questions. green mountain diapers.

what a fun age.



Saturday, July 17, 2010

full time fluff. part one.

a few people have been asking me about our cloth diapers so i thought i'd share how we came to be.

you might have remembered me mentioning that we i was interested in cloth diapers. i first started researching them when i was pregnant the first time. (btw, i hate saying "pregnant the first time" i wish there was an easier and better way to say it.)

i stumbled across some blogs and found out that cloth had come such a long way from the pins and swishing in the toilet days. of course, because of the convenience the initial cost has risen too. you can still diaper with prefolds, pins or snappis and covers. that is the most inexpensive way. i was a little intimidated by that, and i knew it would take some convincing on my already skeptic husband. i envisioned me changing all the diapers for all of eternity. (or so it would feel)

i learned all the lingo, you would not believe the amount of acronyms involved, i'll try to keep it easy here. i read up on care, wash, folds, accessories, different companies and styles of diapers. i finally stumbled across the bumgenius website.

i couldn't believe it. you could get one diaper that would fit from 7-35lbs just by changing the way it snaps? that would be amazing! the initial cost would be a lot, but you'd never have to buy more diapers. a lot of people use them for other kids too. i settled on those. how could james say no?

we really didn't have the money to drop on them, and that was the main reason i couldn't get him on board with me. we used cloth wipes from day one (thanks aunt steph!) so i knew it wasn't really the gross factor. although he did say he thinks it's weird for kids to share diapers. he compared it to sharing underwear. so i just settled on maybe buying one here and there and slowly making the switch.

i bought our first one in april and each of eliza grandparents contributed too. (thank you!) eventually we had 8 of them and i was using them and disposable. hoping for more.

then the heavens opened up. i guess i whined and prayed enough that we could find a way. we were trying to get our house rented before we moved and our realtor was over one day. she has a daughter about the same age as eliza. we were talking about babies, and somehow the topic got to diapers. she asked if we've tried cloth. i told her how i was trying to switch over and she said the most amazing thing. "i have a ton you can have. seriously, please just take them." she had gotten them from a friend who used them for about a month. their daycare wouldn't use them so she passed them on to our realtor. she used them for the first few weeks, but decided she couldn't keep up on the laundry and work full time. she just wanted to get rid of them. i wasn't sure what kind they were, or just how many there would be.

before we left georgia she dropped them off in three large boxes. of course it came one day after all our stuff shipped to korea. in total there were 166 diapers! sizes small-toddler. the only ones that had ever been used were the small. they were an all-in-one (AIO) diaper, meaning you didn't need an extra cover for them. i couldn't believe it, suddenly i was up to my ears in diapers, but what was i going to do with them? how could we get them to korea? after a little moral conflict, and advice from family and friends i decided i would sell them, and use that money to buy our stash when we got to korea. we asked the realtor if she wanted anything for them, and she refused. she just HAD to get them out of her house.

so that's what i did. i sold every last one of them. carried the money with us, and ordered enough to diaper eliza. we don't need nearly as many because we have the one size kind. i'd like to say that our stash is set, but it is a bit addicting. especially right after we got ours bumgenius announced they were coming out with a newer version, and more colors.

all the current colors.

i opted for the organic ones because they closed with snaps. i heard the hook and loop (velcro) wears after time, and thought this would be better for the long haul. with their new releases they offer the snaps on the microfiber terry ones (a few bucks cheaper) oh well! i'm happy with what we have, and we didn't have to spend too much on them.

eliza still wears disposable at night because she isn't happy if she wakes up wet in the middle of the night (the organic cotton doesn't give the stay dry feeling) when i put them on her, i cannot believe the smell of the disposable. the perfume and chemicals they have just makes my nose scrunch up. we've also had a lot less leaks with the cloth!

next time i'll talk more about what we have, how we take care of them, how easily we clean them and more!

and yes, james changes them too! :)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

ten.



things she likes...
water. drinking it or playing in it.
pink bunny and brown blanket.
crawling. no longer army style.
eating. especially table food.
bagels.
showers.
jude.
music. blind melon's version of "three is magic number" is at the top of the list. (thanks daddy!)
waving at everyone. it's like she's in a parade everywhere we go.
seeing family on skype.
pretending to talk on the phone.
playing with her beach ball.
knocking towers over.
when we joke around and steal her bunny.
biting things. she crawls around with things hanging out of her mouth.
playing tug with her blanket and bunny.
following me around.
watching movies of herself.
shaking things.

we moved into our new home this month. eliza still is sleeping in her pack and play, just waiting for our stuff to get here. she has done well with the transition. we had a couple fussy days, but of course she was perfect when james was home! she's now in cloth diapers full time. more on that in another post. we have explored a little around korea. she gets loved on everywhere! took her swimming in a big pool for the first time. she loved it. also went to a playgroup a few times. she really enjoys people her size! she is moving pretty fast these days. gets to sitting up on her own and crawls, sits up, crawls, sits up, crawls, pulls up to something. over and over. she decided she doesn't like pureed food anymore and just wants to eat what we're eating. it's fun having family dinners together! we also started to take a little bit of formula. that was very hard on me, but she's happier. still nursing in the morning and at night. hoping to hold on to those. i'm not ready for her to get so old! she is pretty fun these days though!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

vimeo catch up.

i've been adding more videos to vimeo. (the link is on the right) trying to catch up on the past few months so i can post recent ones.

got to keep the grandparents updated!

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