A year in the life

It's been a little over a year since I began writing this blog and although I haven't always been diligent in keeping my posts up to date I am thankful to our friends who suggested it. Looking back over the past year and our life in Kansas I love having the written memories and pictures to look at. I am sad  that I haven't kept up with it more though. There have been so many fun memories from this summer that I may write a few late blog posts just for my own enjoyment. I have also yet to write a blog post about Myles' birth. I think everyone is aware that he has been born (otherwise I would have set some weird world record for pregnancy length-gross!), but most don't know that his birth had a lot of complications and a few really scary moments for both Myles and mommy (ME!). Because of this and the fact that so many of our close friends are expecting I have refrained from sharing our birth story in fear that I would spook them or cause nervous feelings that are unnecessary. I may still write a post about it now and save it for later though:) I notice myself forgetting small details from our time in the hospital which is most likely related to the copious amounts of drugs that were pushed into my system so I want to document and record before I'm left asking dean to tell it to me! To keep myself from writing a novel about our first in Kansas I am going to just list some exciting events that have happened in the last 12 months!

April 2012:Dean, Ashley, Linkin, and Zelda move to Wichita, Kansas! Dean starts work at McConnell Air Force Base.
May 2012: Baby H is spotted via ultrasound and has a strong, steady heartbeat to prove it:)
June 2012: We move into our first Kansas home in Derby, Kansas. It has a really nice, comfy basement for us to hide in during tornadoes (ugh!) and a nursery for baby H! One of my oldest and best friends (Whitney) and her sister (Jamie) come to Kansas for a visit. Jamie and I are both miserable in the summer heat but spend a day at the water park anyway:) <Life is hard:)
July 2012: I started my job at Regent Park Rehab and Healthcare and I love it! (I'm still there actually:)) 
August 2012: Baby H is officially BABY BOY H! aka Myles
September 2012: I am diagnosed with placenta previa and put on a lifting/activity restriction (no bed rest though!)
November 2012: Baby Shower and Friendsgiving in Lexington-YAY! Two trips home! We also celebrated Christmas at Casa de Haggard (the in laws) in lieu of me not being able to travel at Christmas time. I also made the mistake of running to my gate at the airport this month and had my first hospital visit related to contractions. Not smart Ashley, not smart.
December 2012: Christmas, duh!!! We spent the month of December in and out of the hospital because of Kidney infections and contractions. Luckily there was no early labor and Myles stayed put but spending Christmas Eve in the hospital was not my idea of Noel:( Myles is still breech and it seems as if he will be delivered via scheduled c-section. I am already dilated 1 cm and thinking there is no way this baby will make it 40 weeks (the jokes on me!).
January 2013: Prior to my 37 week appointment I have an ultrasound that shows no more placenta previa and a HEAD DOWN baby! I'm 2cm dilated and seem to be progressing, It's go time baby (H)! Although Myles waiting until we kicked him out he did make it before the end of the month. I was NOT going to be pregnant in February! Myles Landon Haggard was born on January 31st at 10:26am via emergency c-section after induction and only 3 hours of labor. He is absolutely perfect and HEALTHY! (So is mommy!) All of Myles' grandparents were also able to be at the hospital for his birth, we couldn't have been more blessed! We spent 4 long days in the hospital because of surgery, Jaundice and weight loss but were out in time to watch the Super Bowl at home. It really is the little things.
February 2013: Dean leaves for his first TDY to Destin, Florida (hard life, I know). We celebrated 2 blissful and exciting years of Marriage. Kansas gets more snow than they've had in years....thanks Kansas. Gramma Welch and Aunt Kimmy come to Kansas to meet baby Myles. He loves them, of course!
March 2013: Tour De Myles! We took Myles on his first plane ride and traveled from Tennessee to Ohio to visit family. He loved every minute of it!
April 2013: Ashley goes back to work (BOO) and Myles starts daycare. Luckily his teachers are awesome and make mom and dad feel much better about being away from him!
May 2013: I'm sure something happened in May, I'm just not sure what:) I'll fill this month up with text just to make it match (it's my OCD).
June 2013: Dean gets an early promotion!!! Senior Airman below the zone:) Yay for Dean! This is a pretty big deal because there are only a select number of spots for this early promotion. Myles and I are so proud!
July 2013: Dean takes his GRE and rocks it! Myles and Mommy(ME!) meet Whitney (and mason, maddex, and maeliegh!) in Tulsa for a couple days of swimming, eating, shopping, and fun! Whitney's sister Jamie and her son Reece and her mom also came! it was an amazing reunion! (note that at this time last year Jamie and I were both prego and now our sons are swimming together:)) Brad, Ale, Mark, Judy, Sofia, and Evy come to Kansas!!! We had an awesome weekend with them and got to take family pictures to document the memory. July was a busy month! OH! Most importantly, we celebrated America's birthday! Myles loved the fireworks and slept through most of them.
August 2013: Dean goes TDY again, 14 days this time! Ashley gets to be a single mom for a few weeks and does NOT like it! Single moms need a vacation and a government holiday, you guys ROCK! Dean also interviews at the Air Force Academy for a Master's program-WISH HIM LUCK! He will get his results in November. (nail biting will ensue until then) Myles' moves up to Infant 2 (tears!!!) and leaves his favorite teachers for the big baby room:( Yes, I wanted to cry.
September 2013: A trip home for Carly and Shelby's wedding has us excited! Only a few more weeks! We're also hoping for baby Avery (Mason and Annie's little sweetie)  to be born so we can meet her! It's hard to believe that last September our close group of friends had zero babies and now we have 3 with one arriving any day and 2 more expected in the new year!

This year has been busy, crazy, amazing, and blessed. We couldn't ask for more!!

TD-Y??

TDY or Temporary Duty is a travel assignment at any location other than a person's home of station that lasts longer than 2 days and usually less than 2 months. Next to deployments, TDY's are a common reason for our loved ones to be away. By the time Myles was born Dean had been in the Air Force for about a year and a half with zero TDY's or deployments. This is pretty uncommon but we attributed this to the fact that he spent much of his first year in various training courses. We still knew however that his time was yet to come and only hoped that it would be short! No one wants to spend time away from their loved ones and  I will be the first to say that I would much rather see Dean go on 5 TDY's if it meant he didn't get deployed. However, it doesn't make the situation suck any less. The first TDY Dean went on was when Myles was a ripe two weeks old and mommy (ME!) was frazzled, sleep deprived, and stressed to the max. Luckily Wichita was hit by an awful snow storm which cut Dean's trip from a week long assignment to only 3 days. Being that I nurse Myles I was used to not getting much of a break even when Dean was home because of his feeding schedule (is there anything else newborns do!?) so the first trip really flew by and wasn't nearly as scary as I imagined. The second trip however, was a challenge. It really gave me an inside view of how hard our life would/will be if/when Dean gets deployed. He was gone 14 days this time and although my mom did come to help out for a few days it was still an adjustment to get myself and Myles ready and get to work in the morning and then pick him up and get him ready for bed every night. Did I mention this trip was conveniently scheduled my first week of school? So go ahead and add homework and studying to that schedule too:( Yep. That really happened. I should also add that normally Dean gets Myles ready in the morning (makes bottles, gets his diaper bag ready, takes him to daycare) because I go in to work at 6am and daycare doesn't open until 6:30. Luckily my boss is AWESOME (all caps!) and allowed me to come in late keeping me from having to do all of that annoying FMLA paperwork and missing work.

Myles and Dean FaceTiming. Myles was showing daddy his new stunna shades:)

 Let me just say that single moms are HEROES!!! I played a single mom one time (this time actually:)) and it was not something I want to do again! Thankfully the geniuses at Apple invented FaceTime and Myles and I were able to chat with our long lost patriarch each night before bed. It definitely wasn't the same as having him home but I think back to when my dad went TDY or even when he was deployed in the Gulf War and wonder how different things would have been if we could have seen his face every day? If we wanted to see a video of my dad when he was deployed we had to wait for it in the mail. There was no email, no picture messages, no VIDEO messages, and most certainly no Skype or FaceTime. As hard as it is to be a military spouse and see my husband leave, I know that we are so fortunate to have the technology we do now that enables us to keep in contact.