Ups and Downs

Cannot believe the end of July is upon us. Summer sure does seem to be flying by. Well, I titled this months blog update "Ups and Downs" because this month sure has seemed to be full of them. The month began with a pretty major low. I preface this story with we're all fine and to let you know the story ended well, but it was a rather scary experience. So, on June 28th (Sunday) around 10am we went out for a family walk around our neighborhood. We walked for about 30 minutes and as we approached our rental house we saw an unfamiliar truck in the driveway. Then as we got closer we saw a strange young man walk out our front door. We yelled, "Hey what are you doing?" and "This is our house". We then saw our flat screen TV amongst other personal items in the back of the truck and realized we walked up on them robbing our house. They realized they were caught and hopped in the truck to leave. We pushed Grey in his stroller off the side to safe spot and Kyle and I attempted to stop them from backing up. They backed up into the yard and Kyle tried to open the driver's door and actually ripped the handle off. Then as they speed away down the street the passenger leaned out and fired 3-4 shots in Kyle's directions, Greyson and I were further up the driveway. As, I said we we're all fine - incredibly scared and shaken up, but fine. Our neighbor came out when he heard the commotion and shots and called 911. Police were here in minutes and put out a radio call for the truck based on the info we saw and a few neighbors who witnessed the event. They were able to track them down within 20 blocks of here and after a bit of a high speed chase they crashed into a corner of a house/telephone pole and attempted to run on foot, but we're caught by the authorities. Both are sitting in the county detention center currently and are awaiting trial. We were able to get our things back since they were caught, but granted many things were ruined in the process. Thankfully we had renter's insurance. So, as I said this was a big "down" in our lives and we're still recovering from that trauma day by day. We did get a new metal door and frame installed (since they kicked in the door to enter) and got a pretty detailed security system installed. It's definitely helping us sleep better at night. We're so thankful for not getting hurt in that moment and that they were caught, but still can't get over that this happened to us in broad daylight on a Sunday morning. A big thanks to all of you who heard about this event and were so supportive during this rough time with us.

On to happier news, a big "up" for this month was my week long trip home to Chicago with Greyson. He had so much fun spending lots of time with his grandparents. He enjoyed a trip to Woodfield Mall and Build-a-Bear, had his first taste of Portillo's, and played with Mommy's friends who came to visit. Grandpa Mike and Grandma Joannie were brave enough to babysit Grey for a night while I went I enjoyed a night out in Indy for my friend Jeff's wedding. Lisa and I actually met there and a had a blast at the wedding reception with friends. While I was away Greyson had so much fun going to the Kohl's Children's Museum with his grandparents and a trip to the park. We then spent a few days at my Dad's lake house and enjoyed relaxing in nature, going boating, and feeding Kali the dog lots of snacks before it was time for us to head home. I also give myself a lot of credit, as this was my first trip with just Greyson and I. Dealing with airports and flying with a toddler is exhausting, but overall he did great and I got through it, too.

Kyle is 3 weeks into his first set of officer training here at Ft. Sill. The hours have been long and the training is quite repetitive for someone who has been in the Army for the past 5 years, but he's getting through it. We're looking forward to him finish this training and moving on to his field artillery officer basic course in mid-August. It will be a bit more academic and the hours should be better. Greyson and I are much happier when Daddy is home at a decent time at night to squeeze in some family time before G's bedtime. While Kyle is busy at work I'm keeping busy with Grey. I'm lucky to have a friend from Clarksville who is also here for her hubby's training so we get together often with our kiddos for play dates. We enjoy going to the library play time, running errands, visiting the water park and splash park. I'm also just about done with my first grad class and am proud of how well I've done. I'm looking forward to the month of August off before I start 2 more courses in September. I will actually have some time to read for pleasure not for grad school - yeah!

Greyson is growing and changing more and more everyday. He's such a toddler now, running around, climbing on things, curious about everything, and a very defined and strong personality. We're still so blessed to have a very happy young man most of the time. He his moods, but we're starting time out with him to work on those toddler tantrums. We'll see how that goes. He's also become very verbal. He talks all the time, granted it's mostly not in English, but he sure gabs away. He does say quite a few words now: Mama (for both Kyle and I - he's not so happy about that), Nona (for Corona and Portillo - both of our cats), Nana (banana), Baba (milk or water), he's even attempting to say Cheese (mostly comes out Ch...), and shoes (he makes the Sh sound). He's also regularly using sign language he's learned from the great Signing Time DVDs we have. He regularly signs milk, apple, cookie, eat, puppy, potty, more, all done. Sign language has been a great outlet for him to communicate while he still can't quite verbalize his thoughts. He's growing taller and taller everyday and has to be close to weighing 30 lbs...trust me my exhausted arms feel it. He's very independent at times and likes to walk on his own and check things out, but other times he's very attached to Mom. Overall, he's amazing and he definitely keeps me on my toes while we spend our days together during the week and during our family time on the weekends.

We're looking forward to Kyle's parents coming to visit next week - they are kind enough to come keep me company and play with Grey while Kyle is out in the field for training. It should be fun to show them some more places we've discovered here in Oklahoma. Weather continues to be oppressively hot most of the time, but this week it's been in the 80's....that's pretty much like winter here in the plains. Ha ha!

All our best to you and your families!

Lots of Love,
K, L, and G

P.S. There are new pics linked to the side - I cleared out some links to older pictures because it was getting a bit crowded. Sorry there are a few less than normal because my camera was one of the damaged items in the burglary and it took some time to replace it. Thankfully my Mom took lots of pics during our time in Chicago.

P.P.S. Also enjoy the video - G shows off his climbing, talking and love of waving all in one.