Happy Birthday United States Marine Corps!!!

This past Monday (November 10), the Marine Corps celebrated their 233rd birthday. As usual, this day is met with lots of celebration for the Marines. It's also filled with lots of tradition. Chris and I attended our first Ball at Camp Lejeune and I was pleasantly surprised! We had it at the gym on base and it was decorated very nicely. The food was very good, we even had a carving station!!! I lucked out on my dress, since I got in online and it was made in China, so I can't complain too much. I think I looked pretty good! And of course, Chris look fabulous in his dress blues! With the exception of Elijah getting cranky and a diaper rash from hell at our friend's house, the day was perfect!!

Halloween 2008!

The week of Halloween was a busy one for us. We had a little get together the week before Halloween to celebrate with some friends. It was a costume party, and we had a lot of great costumes! Chris was a whoopie cushion and I was a doctor. We decided that Elijah would be a pumpkin. And what a cute pumpkin he was!!! He even went trick-or-treating for the first time. He refused to walk, so Chris had to carry him, but he seemed to enjoy it. He racked up on the candy! Of course, me and Chris got to eat most of it :) Always a good thing.

We have a walker!!! Sort of...

It's official!! Elijah FINALLY took a few steps on his own today!!!!! Yeah!!!!! But of course, he'd rather crawl and I don't think he can figure it out on his own yet, but he did it!!! He took one step to me and four steps to Chris. Please. I'm the one that was working with him and he takes more steps to daddy?!?!?!? What's up with that!! Oh well. Begger's can't be choosers I guess!

Finally getting settled!

Well, it's been a while, but things are finally starting to settle down. A lot has happened since I posted last, so I'll try to give a little synopsis! The weekend of July 12, we had our much anticipated LeMieux/Hay family reunion. It was a long time coming and we had a blast! Elijah decided that he could pull himself up on furniture. He had only recently started crawling, so he was getting that hang of that fast!

On August 1 we celebrated Elijah's first birthday. I still can't believe he's one already! We actually celebrated with a few parties. We had one in Virginia with my family and some of our friends, then we drove up to Ohio to celebrate with Chris' family and to hit his family reunion up there.

Once we got back from Ohio, I had to pack everything up and head down to North Carolina for good. So that leads me to now. We picked up the keys to our house on my birthday (September 15--my 30th!!! Chris and our friends even through me a surprise party!) and we got all of our stuff on Tuesday. And in true Marine Corps fashion, Chris was gone. So needless-to-say, moving by yourself isn't fun! But thank God my mom came down to help out. Good thing, since Elijah decided to come down with a nice case of croup.

Elijah is doing really well. He's finally over his croup. He got his first haircut!!! How freakin' cute is that! He weighs 24 pounds 13 oz and is 30 1/2 inches long. He is still not walking, but he cruises along the furniture like a champ and when you hold both of his hand he'll walk. But as soon as you let go, he'll stand for about 15 seconds or so and then he's down and taking off. Yeah, he's lazy!

So now we're trying to get the house in order. Not looking forward to that. We've only been in here two weeks and I've already lost my motivation!!! That's pretty sad. Oh well. I've attached a slide show with some random pictures. It's a little long, so bear with it!

Craziness

Yes, that's what life has been like for the past few weeks! I'm still in Virginia staying with mom and dad for a while and Chris has officially checked in with his new unit in North Carolina. Our name is on the list for housing (we're number 7) and hopefully it will only take the 1 to 3 months that they've told us. We'll see. So far we've been lucky that Chris has been able to stay with friends while we're waiting for our house. Our house in Virginia still has not been rented, but we're hopefull that it'll go soon. Once we get settled, we'll let everyone know our new information.

Anyway, Elijah has since turned 11 months old. Wow! It's amazing how fast the past 11 months have gone. Hard to believe that he'll be turning one in just a few more weeks. All of my pictures are still on our laptop, so I haven't been able to download anything. But don't worry, I'll get pictures out as soon as I can!

Elijah's first 4th of July went great. Mom and Dad had a BBQ for their neighbors and we just hung out. Elijah was in bed in time for the fireworks, and he slept through them all. What a good boy! Especially considering that they were right outside his bedroom window!

We're looking forward to the coming weekend because it's my family reunion. We haven't had one in quite some time, so it'll be good to see everyone. I'll post pictures of that too. Once I have some more exciting news to post, I'll do that as well!

Moving

So much as happened since we got back to Vermont! We've tried to get some stuff packed up so the movers don't have to move anything that could be given away or even thrown away. We've been somewhat successful! The movers were scheduled to come on Monday, June 23. On Wednesday, June 18, we were told our move date wasn't confirmed and may have to reschedule!!! What?!?!?! After going through hoops to try to find out what was going on, we were finally able to get it confirmed on Friday afternoon. We never even had a walk-through before the movers got here. (this is important to note because when we filled out the paperwork, Chris had to estimate how many pounds we had. Not having a clue as to what to put, he put 4,000 pounds. Pretty average, right? Well, apparently he underestimated by 2,000 pounds and the movers got a little irritated. But since we didn't have a walk-through, what the heck do you want us to do about it?!?!?!).

Anyway, I've been actively looking for a job down in NC for a little bit, but finally found one that would suit me perfectly. The only problem is that they require a typing test and a spelling test, that must be done in person. Yeah for me. Since I really want this job, we decided that I would drive down there on Sunday night, and on Monday morning, complete the appropriate paperwork and come home. So this leaves Chris alone to deal with Elijah and the packers/movers. Thank God for parents! (I did good on the tests by the way, but don't know about the job yet!)

So now our house is full of boxes, which are being loaded into the moving van as I type (I'm with Elijah at mom and dad's while Chris is at the house with the movers). Now begins the process of cleaning and getting the house rented and finding housing in NC. We're hoping to live on base, but we'll see how that works. Wish us luck! Once we get settled, I'll let everyone know our new information!

Vermont

We had such a great time in Vermont! (check back later for pictures, I'm not sure when I can upload them!!) We headed up there Friday, June 6 and came back on Sunday, June 15. The whole purpose for us going up there was so that Chris could do his residency with Norwich University to do his Master's. While he did that, mom, dad, Elijah and I were tourists!

We left on Friday afternoon and drove to NJ to stay the night at my aunt Linda's house. We didn't get a chance to really visit with her because we had gotten there so late and wanted to get on the road at a decent hour, but we still had a good time. And this is where Elijah started crawling! Go figure, we have 2 cats, but the minute he sees a dog, he takes off! We checked into our hotel on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday we checked out Ben and Jerry's and the Trapp Family Lodge (yes, the von Trapp's from the Sound of Music!!!). We had to drop Chris off at school Sunday afternoon and on Monday we decided to hang around the resort for a while and go to the pool.

On Tuesday we went to Burlington and then took the ferry over to Plattsburgh, NY to visit some family. Of course, there was some severe weather and tornadoes, and they shut the ferry down! It took us 3 hours to get home that night, but we got to see the Canadian border, so I can't complain too much! On Wednesday we went to St. Johnsbury, where my dad lived for a few years growing up and we got to get some maple syrup, and we toured the Cabot cheese factory. Chris had Thursday off, so we spent the day by the pool and then we had to take him back to school because the graduates got their master's "hoods". It was a pretty neat ceremony.

On Friday morning we checked out of one resort, then into another, then we drove back to Norwich so we could see the graduation. It was very hot where they had the ceremony, but it didn't last as long as we thought it would. I'm so proud of him! He worked so hard to get this and it's finally over!

We left early Saturday morning and drove back to NJ to stay with my aunt again. This time we had time to spend with her! We had a great dinner and we got up early again on Sunday and made the drive home. Overall we had a great time and we can't wait to check Vermont out again some other time! Now we just have to wait for the movers!