Last Active Duty Task

Jesse was asked to say the prayer at the first football game of the season for Christian Academy of Knoxville (CAK). It was a military themed night with the Air National Guard flying in some helicopters and landing for the kids to come and check them out. Since my best friend's hubby is the athletic director, he thought it would be perfect to have someone from the 101st Airborne say the prayer for the evening. It was a great game with CAK winning and the military support. Ellie even wore CAK colors! This is the last "task" Jesse has had for active duty Army during his terminal leave which ends Sept. 19th! :) HOOAH!

1st Day of School

All 3 of us had our own 1st day of school this year. My new job has me back to school 2 nights a week, teaching 2 sections of the College Success course. Jesse went back to school at UT to finish his doctorate by taking 3 courses each semester. AND, Ellie started a Parent's Day Out program one day a week so she can be around some other kids and start learning to play with them. So here are Jesse and Ellie's first days going back to school! :)

8 Months Old

Ellie turned 8 months recently and I wanted to update on her progress. Each day she does something new and it's so exciting to see her learn and discover our world through her eyes. It makes you appreciate the small things. Here are a few new things about her:

1. She has her 3rd tooth coming in (middle top left one) and is learning to bite and chew her food with them.
2. She is down to 4 bottles a day and 3 meals of solids a day, including meats such has chicken, ham and ground beef and beans, cheese, yogurt and small pasta. I'm so proud of her for how well she is adapting to new foods. I just have to be creative in making them!
3. She can sit up for a while, but she's not too fond of it. She would rather just stand or scooch. Her scooching is getting faster the more she does it, but hopefully she will soon learn to lift her body up to crawl.
4. She loves to be around other kids and her family. She lights up with smiles whenever she is around other people. I can see her really observe her surroundings when we go new places.
5. She LOVES books, especially the ones that have things she can touch in them. She also likes to chew on them when she's done reading!
6. She is drinking bottles with the "fast" nipples finally! I hate typing that word but this is a big accomplishment. She was such a spit-up baby and now, she rarely spits up on us. We were unable to use the faster flowing ones due to her spitting it up so much.
7. She has her own little laugh and loves to talk to her bath toys each night.
8. She now sleeps with a little bear blanket regularly.
9. She is wearing 6 month clothing, but will be wearing 6-9 month clothing very soon.
10. She can say the sound "da da da da" but she's still working on associating it with Jesse.

We are so proud of our baby girl. She starts a Parents Day Out program this week, which will be tough for me to leave her at, but I take comfort in the fact that her teacher is my best friend, Becca! I'll get to have some time to work on my classes, go to the grocery store, work out, etc. on Thursdays for a few hours, so I look forward to it. She also gets to be around other kids her age, which was important to us to make sure she has that time to socially develope! Wish us luck!

Crawling Ellie - Watch Out Callie!

Ellie is crawling (Army high crawl according to Jesse) now and I caught this moment on video the other day. She is still completely facinated with Callie, and you will see Callie's annoyance with her in this clip. It will only get worse - Poor Callie!

I GOT A JOB!

Yep...you read that right! 2 days after arriving in Knoxville, I met with a lady at Pellissippi State Community College about possibly teaching their College Success course as adjunct (part-time). We talked for a few minutes and then she opened up the class schedule to ask me when I wanted to teach! I was floored. So, I will be teaching 1 or 2 classes this Fall Semester part-time. God truly had a plan when it came to a job. After all the jobs I applied for that I thought I was a shoe-in and they all fell through, God opened up this opportunity through my old co-worker from UT (Tracy - thanks friend) to work part-time and still be able to be home with Ellie! I think we have figured out child care for Ellie on the days I teach so it is looking great for our Fall line-up! Pray for me as I take on this new work adventure - I'm terrified of teaching! This will be quite the challenge for me and I'm looking forward to having my own "thing" again.

From Ft. Campbell Back To Knoxville

The time has finally come - our tranistion out of active duty Army! Jesse has moved us back to our house in Knoxville and it is crazy to have this much space compared to what we were living in on post. My mom came up to Ft. Campbell to help watch Ellie while we loaded the truck and checked out of housing (stressful process). Our last few days at Ft. Campbell went by really fast, filled with sad goodbyes to our Army friends and family and tons of packing and cleaning. Plus, dealing with details from our wreck and details from clearing post filled up every free minute we had.


We have been looking forward to the time we could move back to Knoxville and move on with our lives from the hard years of Army life, but on the day we left, I will admit that it was tough to say goodbye to that world/lifestyle. It's all we have known the past 3+ years and it's a world that we brought our first child into. So, as I drove away from our house and from Gate 1, I reflected on our time there and got a little sad leaving it behind. We made some great friends that we would have only had met through this experience and we hated to say goodbye to our support away from home. Thanks to our OCF family, the Teter's, the Connor's and our great neighbor's the Moore's. We will always remember our time in the Army and the friends we made. I will miss walks with Claire around Werner Park, OCF Bible Study on Tuesday nights, my Austin Peay co-workers and students, cheap meat at the Commisary, the local restaurants we enjoyed (El Bracero, Yamato, Blackhorse Pub, Silke's Bakery) and our little home away from home we made. Goodbye, Ft. Campbell! Hello, Knoxville!

Scariest Moment of My Life

We were on our way to Knoxville for the last time before the final move to finish up a few projects we needed to complete before bringing the rest of our stuff. We stopped to meet the Speaks (our Aberdeen, MD friends) at a McD's and then got back on the road to Knoxville. On our way, we took Briley Parkway to cut through to I-40 East. On the 2-laned entrance ramp to I-40, we were driving next to a semi-truck. Jesse commented that it was going too fast and then all of a sudden he screamed, "Hold on!" I braced myself as a semi-truck fell over on top of us, screaming Ellie's name over and over again. As soon as the craziness halted, I heard Jesse yell to get Ellie and I jumped out and found her covered in dirt, but completely fine. I helped Jesse get out of the car through my door and we yanked Ellie's car seat out and we got away from the car. Jesse was bleeding and having a hard time breathing so I immediately called 911. I checked Ellie out with the help of some ladies that had stopped and then I had cops get her food and diapers out of the car for me. A nurse and soldier had stopped and helped Jesse until the ambulance came. Thankfully, the bleeding was just his right hand but the medics strapped him in and took us all to the ER. We were all checked out, Jesse was stitched up and bandaged and we were able to leave that evening. Our friend Claire was amazing and helped me with Ellie and little details, but also drove us back to Ft. Campbell. We also had the help of Bill and Cindy Mason (holding Ellie in picture on right in ER - she was worn out) and it was so amazing to have them all there with us. Scariest moment of my life - you never want to have the moment of fear for your child's life and I had it. That motherly instinct kicked in high gear. I was shocked that I was more worried about Ellie than Jesse, but Ellie was helpless and Jesse wasn't. We are SO blessed and lucky to have made it out alive and with so little injuries. One day, we will tell Ellie about this wreck and she will see the craziness she experienced at such a young age. I'm so glad she will not remember this! We are now dealing with insurance, therapy for Jesse and the aftermath of stuff we lost in the car. Keep us in your prayers as we try to put this behind us!