Deployment Week 5 and 6

Our Handsome Little Man

Our Beautiful Baby Girl

Justin and his friend Clark

25 Weeks!!!

Sorry I did not get anything posted last week. With the holidays it was CRAZY around here.

We had a really good holiday season here in Oregon. We do our usuals. We went to downtown Portland, the Zoo lights, and more. Justin sent the kids Polar Express the book. He read it to them and they loved it. I loved it too!! We decorated some cookies for Santa with my sister and nephew. It was a lot of fun. Christmas was really good, apart from my husband not being here. The kids got a lot of stuff and I got just about everything I wanted. Only thing I didn't get of course was my hubby home! I started school last week. I am so excited about it!! I got 100% on my first test. I will have one to take one every week. So I will keep you all posted on how I am doing.
We have been able to see all of our family here. Even some of Justin's grandparents. We are planning on going to the beach for the new year, which I am excited for. My kids won't get to see the beach again for a long time! Today we had a HUGE surprise. It snowed! Gabe was so excited. He kept saying "Its Snowing!" Then he started saying "Its Snowing! HO HO HO Happy Birthday!!" It was pretty funny.
Justin is doing pretty good. He misses everybody, but he is getting used to it. I get to talk to him a lot. But I don't EXPECT to talk to him daily, because I know the second I expect it...he won't be able to talk to me or something. We won't know if he will be home for Faith's birth until the birth actually happens. We should know more about his leave in March.
Pregnancy is going pretty good. I have had TERRIBLE heartburn, and am getting to the super uncomfortable stage in my pregnancy. The kids want to cuddle all night on top of that so I don't get much sleep at night. I am currently 25 weeks along. That means only 12-15 weeks left. Probably closer to 12 weeks though since I have never gone past 37 weeks. My midwife is guessing 36 weeks though, since I had Gabe at 37 and Hope at 36 1/2. Anyway, that is all for now! More to come next week for sure!

Jen

Deployment Week 4

Justin in Kuwait

He Was VERY disappointed with the Mountain Dew

Justin and his buddies goofing off

Another week down here in the Stembridge household. Time really seems to be flying!! I have gotten to talk to Justin a few times this week. He doesn't have internet yet, but he found a Wifi hotspot that he goes to every night. He is doing pretty good. Been missing us, but thats not unusual. He said it has been pretty relaxed there. We talked today about how strong we have become through this. I felt really good about it. It was really nice to talk to him about that kind of stuff. We miss him lots, but we know we can make it!!
Its been a pretty busy week for us. We went and visited the Thompsons a couple of times this week. Baby Bella is getting so big. She is almost as tall as Hope!! We have been there 2 times this week for dinner. It is so much fun to get to hang out with friends that I haven't seen in forever!
We also did some of our family traditions this week. On Saturday we went to downtown Portland and saw Santa and had dinner at Pioneer Square. We also decided to go to the zoo. That was FREEZING!!! The kids loved all the lights though! We also started a new tradition. Justin sent us a DVD of him reading Polar Express to the kids. That is one of our favorites. The kids loved it. They really enjoy seeing daddy on the TV or computer.
The pictures that I have attached above are pictures that Justin sent me today from his deployment. I am sure he will have more to share in the near future. Look for our blog next week!!! Hope to talk to you all soon.

Jen

Deployment Week 3

All Crashed Out!!!

22 Weeks

Isaac took this Pic of Gabe

This week has gone by pretty fast. We have had our ups and downs...but mostly ups.
I have been able to talk to Justin almost every day!! Its been so awesome. He mostly messages me in the middle of the night at like 2:00 AM, but it is SO worth it to get to talk to him. He also got to video chat a few times and got to see the kids. He was so happy to see his baby's, including my huge tummy.
We have had a pretty full week!! Christmas shopping, tree hunting, Jantzen Beach, Party for AJ, manis and pedis with mom and Kris. Just pretty much on the go all the time. I have my phone on yahoo messanger all the time so that Justin can message me when ever he is on and able to talk. It was also Justins birthday this week. He got to call on his birthday. I asked how his birthday was. His response "Well I AM in Iraq". I guess that means it wasn't very good. LOL
Justin told me that he is finally starting to get use to the whole Iraq thing. Not that its something that he REALLY wants to get "use" to, but he is. He cut the top of his head the other day. He said it bled a lot, but wasn't deep enough to need staples. He had to go and see the medic and everything. I could barley see it on the web cam, but he said that he said a few choice words. Anyway, gotta get goin for the night, I'm sure I will have LOTS to blog about next week. Another full week here in FREEZING Oregon!!! Love to you all!!!

Jen

Deployment Week 2

This week was really great!! On Thursday we flew into Oregon and surprised my family with being here for Thanksgiving. My parents knew about it, but nobody else did. It was awesome. All my sister Kristen could say was "I've been trying to call you all day...why weren't you answering?" Thanksgiving was great. We had our huge "mixed" family there. Both of my parents were there as well as ALL my siblings and some of my aunts and uncles. There was so much food and TONS of conversation!!! It was amazing. And to top that day off, I got to talk to Justin. He was a little down with not being with us for Thanksgiving, but other than that he was good.
The rest of the week has just flown by! On Saturday night we all went out as a family to party. My kids stayed with some friends from church. We had a blast. On Sunday the kids and I went to church and then went to my sisters to hang out. On Monday and Tuesday I got almost all the Christmas shopping done. I also bought some things to send to Justin for his birthday and Christmas.
I got a call from Justin yesterday, he is doing good. Still missin us, but good. His job has once again changed. He is still a driver, but he is doing security for the bomb squad. I am really getting tired of them changing his job!! Just keep him in your prayers, I am more worried now. He did say though that he talked to the guys who were leaving as they were coming in. They said it has been pretty quiet there for the past 6 months. I'll keep you all posted as I know more. Thanks for all the prayers.

Jen

Deployment Week 1

Hey Everybody, we have survived our first week of deployment. I have gotten to talk to Justin a couple of times on the phone and a couple of times on Yahoo Messenger. He is doing good. He said that the only thing he could complain about was the Mt Dew doesn't taste the same. :) He is so funny!!!
My week was good. It actually went by really fast. I had another ultrasound and its still a girl. The whole ultrasound was a fiasco though. I took the kids to the childcare place on post. Since I didn't have the right box for Hopes inhaler they wouldn't take Hope. I had to take Hope to the ultrasound with me. When I got there they said they wouldn't be able to see me if I had her. I broke down! I went in and talked to my midwife. She took Hope from me and told me to go to my appointment.
Other than that the week has been pretty uneventful. I have spent A LOT of time at Krystals house. The kids LOVE going over there. As do I of course! I also spent a lot of time this week getting my house organized. I have washed EVERYTHING in my house and done ALL the dishes. Well I gotta go for now, my kids are fighting and I have to make dinner. I will update again next week.

Jen

Pre Deployment Week 4

This was a hard week for us. We got to spend a lot of time together as a family. But on the last day of this week...Justin left for Iraq. :(
This week we did a lot. We went to a birthday party for a friends lil girl on Sunday. We walked around Wal Mart on Saturday. (sounds like fun huh. LOL) We just tried to do as much as we could as a family before our time together was up. I don't have a lot to say about the rest of the week, so we will talk about D DAY!!!
Yesterday was D Day for us!!! We started the morning off with breakfast. Eggs and toast...MMMM. We watched some movies and just kind of hung out as a family for most of the day. At about 3 we had to pack the car up with all of Justins stuff and head out to his company. When we got there we were still a little early so Justin and I played tic-tac-toe and hangman on the car windows. (I had an erasable marker). We then went in and sat with Justin's bags for a while then he had to do formation and weapons draw. This part of the day was terrible because it was cold out and we didn't get to spend a whole hour with him. When he finally did that we took his bags over and dropped them off to be put on a bus. By now it was 6:30 and the kids had not had dinner yet. We decided that it would be best for all of us to just go ahead and go home. Justin walked us out to the car and put each of the kids in their seats. He told them how much he loved them and to be good for mommy. Then it was my turn. I held him and told him not to let go. I'm so selfish!! He told me he would be fine and that he WOULD come home...alive. He kissed me, and my belly. Told me how much he loved me. I told him how proud I was of him and how proud I was to be his wife. It was so hard to leave. I cried the whole way home. When I got to the gate the security guard asked how I was...I sorta lost it on him. He comforted me and told me that he had been through 9 deployments and that I just needed to surround myself with a good support group.
When we got home the kids and I watched the DVD that Justin had made for us of him reading Where The Wild Things Are to the kids. We watched it 3 times. The kids LOVED it. I really liked it too. Gabe kept saying, "we watch daddy again?" I had to tell him no cause it was way past his bed time. We didn't sleep very well last night. But most of us took a nap today.
Today we went to Krystal's house. It is amazing how much better I feel today. I think it is because I am not worrying about spending every second I can with Justin. I am just focusing on what needs to be done here. And trying really hard to keep busy. Anyway, that is all for now. Next week starts a new chapter in my blog. DEPLOYMENT!!! Love to you all.

Jen

Pre Deployment Week 3

Faith Stembridge

RIP SPC Kham Xiong

Sorry that this is a little late. I wanted to wait until I got my ultrasound to post it. First off...we are having a baby Girl!!! Faith will be here in March or April. We are super excited. Best part is Justin got to be here for the ultrasound. It was amazing. :) We even got her a dress today after the ultrasound.
Anyway, Justin will be leaving us in the next few days. Its very hard to think about him being gone for so long. I am very lucky to have so many people to support me here. We have been able to spend a lot of time together over the last week. I have LOVED it. So have the kids. I really think they are both going to have a hard time with Justin being gone. They freak out even when he just goes outside for a minute. We will deal with it though.
This week was a very hard and emotional week. The shooting at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and so many more injured was emotional when we first found out about it. It got even MORE emotional when I found out that one of Justin's good friends from Basic Training was one of the 13 dead. I have never in my life had to break such horrible news to anybody. The fact that it was my husband that I had to tell made it that much worse. We watched the memorial on the internet. I cried so hard when I saw Kham Xiong's (Justin's friend) wifes reaction when she got to his picture. They literally had to pry her away from it. I wrote a letter to the reporter who wrote a wonderful story about SPC Xiong. He forwarded that letter to his family. I felt so blank for a few days there. All I could think of was "That Could Have Been Justin!!" Then yesterday a thought popped into my head. Justin went to NTC last month. He saw SPC Xiong there. You go to NTC before you deploy. If SPC Xiong was there, was the man who shot him there for training? That got me all emotional too. I couldn't stand the thought that my husband had quite possibly seen this man, or even eaten in the same room or slept in the same barracks as him!!! It has all been a lot to process.
Anyway, since I don't have much time left with my husband, I will go ahead and end my blog here. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our family.

Jen

Pre Deployment Week 2

So Halloween was this week as you all know. We had such a blast. The kids did so good. Gabe didn't quit get the concept of saying trick or treat because he would say it after they gave him candy and then expect MORE candy. It was so cute. We went with The Paeths in another friends community. After we were done trick or treating we took the kids and played at the park. I don't know who was the bigger kids. The kids or the husbands!!! All in all it was a great night!
We have decided to do an early Thanksgiving this year. Since Justin and my friend Krystal's husband will be leaving in a couple of weeks. We are going to be doing it this Saturday. We got a 23 lb turkey. I can't wait to smell it cookin in our oven. Today Justin and I decided that we are going to set up our Christmas decorations. I put an add on our local Freecycle today for a fake Christmas tree. I would LOVE to set one up for Justin before he leaves so we can take some holiday pictures and such in front of it.
This week I got involved with our Family Readiness Group (FRG). I helped set up our companies Halloween party on Thursday. It was really nice to meet some of the ladies in our company. We also found out last week that our friends the Paeths are getting a house on post and Krystal will be staying instead of going back to Michigan. I am so excited. She will only be a couple of blocks away from us.
Justin's work schedule is pretty relaxed right now. He is able to come home early for the most part. He is trying to get tomorrow off to take me to my last DR appointment before he leaves. :( We do have an ultrasound scheduled for next Thursday. We are super excited to find out what we are having!! Anyway, more to come next week. Keep us in your prayers.

Jen

Pre Deployment Week 1

As most of you already know...Justin is getting ready to leave for Iraq. Everybody is handling it in their own way. Hope I don't think really knows whats going on, but I know she can feel how tense it is around here. Gabe is the same way, but he is acting out a lot more than Hope is. I...well I'm dealing. I'm really tired, and not sure that the fact that Justin will be gone for a year has really hit me yet.
We are doing things to try and keep us busy. We are enrolling the kids in lots of activities throughout the next year to keep them busy. I am volunteering at Justin's companies FRG (Family Readiness Group), am starting to go to a weekly Bible study on post and a monthly womens worship at my midwifes church. We are part of Waiting Families which provides us with 16 hours a month per child of free child care, 1 family activity a month and 1 adult activity per month. So there are lots of things to keep us busy for the 12 month deployment. Now all I need is a house keeper!!!
We are also concentrating on getting things ready for our newest addition coming in April. We find out in a little over 2 weeks what we are having. We are SUPER excited. Justin will get to come home around the time I have the baby so he will get to meet him or her. Anyway, I am going to try to update this every week to keep you all updated on what is going on with us. I will also give you as much information about whats going on with Justin as I can.