At this point I'm coming here to update just to have somewhere to record all the crazy things that are happening in our lives right now.  I think I'm going to have to do a bullet post because putting this all into prose is just daunting!

• Isaac has finally cut the last of the 8 teeth that have been coming in.  He now has all 16 and we have a break until his two year old molars.  Phew!
• Isaac still has the same ear infection he got 34 days ago.  We are on the third oral course of antibiotics and have also done two antibiotic boosters in the ER.  They have exhausted what they normally use on children and he's now on some pretty powerful stuff... He has an appointment with an ENT on the 14th... FINGERS CROSSED!
• We spent two nights in the ER last week with a high fever complicated by Isaac's ear infection.  That was fun... Poor baby!
• We have our orders to Incirlik, Turkey.  In about six months we'll be there.
• We are praying hard that we get a good house there... things look fantastic but with the Air Force, prayer NEVER goes astray!
• We are getting excited about being together as a family again!  It's a big shock to our little world going to Turkey out of the blue but it will be so nice to be together!
• We have to get rid of Spock for some potential customs issues with Turkey and then going to another overseas location after that.
• I found a wonderful family for him!  I've known the mom for about 7 years on Xanga (though she isn't here anymore).  They have three children and are an Air Force family moving to California.  He's going to be in doggy heaven.  I am excited for him!
• I just found out that Isaac is going to be our only child.  Basically (and I am really making a long story short) my health will not tolerate another pregnancy.  I was told to thank God for the son I have been given, thank God he's healthy, thank God I do not have a much more serious health issue, and spend the energy left to me being a mom to Isaac.  Another baby will destroy what health I have left and the potential for serious health issues with the baby is astronomical.  Ryan and I have decided after much prayer that it's not worth the risk. 
• We are blessed beyond all we could ask or think.
• Our life is crazy, up in the air, not our own at all, and AMAZING!

I guess that's it for the moment... I'm sure there's more... or there soon will be! 

Love you and miss you beyond words...

Courtney

I don't know how long I'll have... moments before Isaac wakes up but this is the first moment I've had today to really sit and think...

We got some HUGE news today that you've probably already seen on Facebook so here's the scoop.

Ryan got the news this morning that his one year tour in Izmir Turkey has been canceled due to the need to fill his slot immediately.  Instead they are sending him to Incerlik AFB on the other side of Turkey.  The big shocker is that this tour is for two years and it's accompanied.  That means that Isaac and I will be moving to Turkey... the first week of March.  I went from getting ready to say hello and goodbye to Ryan in quick succession this winter to saying goodbye to America and moving overseas again. 

It's a good thing I'm excited but I'm blown away.  Life is crazy and that's a fact.

It's time to be honest.  Regular blogging is out for me until I've left Phoenix.  Life is so busy that most days I don't get near my computer and just facebook on my phone...  I just don't have any time for myself.  I'll keep throwing up quick posts like this but for the most part I'll see you after Christmas... I'm so sad... I miss you ladies so much and having you in my life is about to get a whole lot more important!  (And you're already a pretty big deal for me!) 

Keep us in your prayers?  You are always in mine... and my thoughts...

Courtney

I am so sorry that I haven't been around.  I miss you so much!  Just when I was getting back into blogging and rediscovering just how much it really does mean in my life my whole world is tipped up on it's side! 

Things are... going.  Isaac is still cutting those 8 teeth though four of them are poking through now... it's the fallout that NEVER ends.  He is miserable!  To add to that he picked up a nasty cold at the sitters last Friday AND learned to pick his nose... the two combined are... JOY!  He now has yet another ear infection and his doctor said one more and we go to an ENT and talk tubes so guess where we're headed?  All of this means I'm on my way down to Phoenix today and will have to stay the week to get him into the doctor.  That's going to be fun for me as my energy levels have dropped off again and it's time for me to go have bloodwork to see where my iron levels are... 

So I'm TIRED!  Big time... but we're okay...  time is going quickly and we're enjoying our time here in the north with my mom and dad.  The weather is starting to cool and things are in the works! 

Keep Ryan in your prayers if you think of him... things are a bit hairy where he is at the moment. 

That's about it and my reason for not being here much.  I'm trying desperately to keep up with you though I haven't a moment to comment...

All my love,

Courtney 

Good morning!

I have a whole five minutes late at night to catch up and I'm taking them!

I would like to introduce you to a new member of our happy little hilltop home.

Meet Charlotte!

Yes she is a GIGANTIC spider that lives under the cabin. 

This pretty little lady is a Neoscona crucifera spotted orbweaver... more commonly known as a barn orb spider... before you try to talk yourself into thinking that she isn't THAT big please be aware that she is eating a honey bee!

She just makes me weak in the knees and I'm not a squeamish woman.  That is a very big and very hairy spider!

Her web takes up a huge section of the area between posts on the deck... But she doesn't sit on it... she's up under the beams...

See her hanging up there?  This picture was taken from flat on my back right under the web... She is about six feet away...  *SHUDDER* 

A friend asked me what camera and lens I used to take these photos so here's the info.

My camera is a Nikon D40 and the lens I used for these zoom shots is a Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6 ED

In other news... 

Things are going well.  We are settling in nicely and enjoying our time with our family.  We miss Ryan so much but it's been wonderful to be able to keep in touch with him during this deployment... He's already been gone for over a month... the time is going quickly. 

Well, that's about all I've got!  Take care and see you again soon!!!

Courtney

Good morning ladies!

I have no idea how much time I'll have here... I'm desperately trying to pound out something so you know I'm still alive... in the last few days I've even considered just walking in morse code since that wouldn't take any extra time! 

Life is insane but good.  I'm in Arizona and getting settled in pretty well. 

The thing that's making life so busy at the moment is that I'm living in two places.  I'm in Prescott, AZ

(about 1.5 hours north of Phoenix and therefore MUCH cooler) during the week and down in Phoenix visiting family and friends during the weekend. 

My child has also decided that sleep is overrated!  He goes to bed at his normal time of 8:30pm BUT has decided that 6am is the perfect time to wake up!  I'm used to him waking up at about 8am so it's kind of thrown me into a tailspin.  I'll get back into a different rhythm but for now it's making life a bit hectic. 

In Prescott we live in my parent's cabin on the Assembly of God campgrounds. 

We are 3 adults, 1 toddler, and two rambunctious pups in 700 square feet!  It's cozy!!!  We love it here though... it's so peaceful and just plain beautiful.  I can definitely see this next year as a time of spiritual growth for me!

Isaac seems to be adjusting well. 

However he is now cutting 8 teeth at once!  Yes you read that right EIGHT!  It's um... awful!  He is now 15 months old, walking like a champ and just had his very first haircut!  He wasn't a fan...

He's a wonderful little kid and I'm so completely blessed...

Ryan is doing good as well.  He's enjoying the time there though he's lonely for home and hearth.  There is some scary stuff going on all around him but he's wrapped in our prayers!  KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING!

I'm going to get a move on because I'd like to add a few pictures to this and I'm hearing some stirrings. 

Love you all and miss you!  I'm keeping up the best that I can and keeping you in my prayers...

Courtney

I was doing so good there for a while.  Posts a few times a week... commenting on everyone's posts even if it was a day or two late...  I was really enjoying being back into Xanga and all that entails. 

And then this week happened.

I have been forced to take an unexpected and unplanned Xanga hiatus.  I don't know when it will end... but it will!

There is a superstition among military wives that says that when your husband deploys anything that can go wrong WILL!  It's true...  his last deployment proved true... HERE... and this one is shaping up to prove it as well.

Quick run down. 

Isaac has a double ear infection.  I found out Monday but for days before that (if not a week) he wasn't sleeping, he was super fussy, and started hitting.  I chalked it up to Ryan being gone and just set out to survive it...  Then Friday afternoon he stared tugging at his ears.  Unfortunately the medical world closes up shop at about 3pm on Friday around here... I called at 7am on Monday.  He's now on meds but struggling to get them down (I'm running over to the pharmacy when he wakes up to see if they can flavor it a little more so it goes down a bit easier.) I'm hoping he's on the mend and life can get back to normal...

Spock had a lump on his shoulder from his chip implant when we first got him.  It's been getting bigger slowly but this past few weeks it's just exploded and last week I noticed some hair loss on the area and that he was starting to be bothered by it.  I took him in on Monday after Isaac's appointment and in a lighting fast moment... My dog was having emergency surgery to remove his tumor and would have to overnight at the clinic.  $224.68 later he's back home on antibiotics and mending well.

Last night at midnight Isaac woke up screaming.  I ran in there with a bottle of milk and left the door open.  Spock snuck down the hall and out his doggy door... About three minutes later I smelled something I am WAY more familiar with than I want to me.  I grabbed the baby and ran down the hall just in time to head him off from getting back in the house.  He had gotten SKUNKED!  I got Isaac to go back to sleep and chose to just leave Spock out for the night because the skunk was still in the yard and I was not going out there and getting skunked myself!

So I was up at the crack of dawn washing my dog... Today I have to clean the house from stem to stern and try to get this stench out of here because I have about 10 hours before my mom and dad roll into town! 

They will be here for three or four days and then we are loading up and leaving for Phoenix and then Prescott Arizona.  I'll be glad to say goodbye to Del Rio for the next 5 months but sad to leave the friends I've finally made and the church I love behind.  Life is going to be crazy for the next few weeks so I don't know exactly how long this hiatus will last... but I will be back!!!

Courtney

The_Koffee_Klatch  challenge #2

Write a letter to your first love

You don't have to name names, although feel free if you want to!   And it doesn't have to be a person...for all we know, your first love was ice cream!  Just take it where ever you want it to go, we'll read it!

If you want to participate or read more entries on this subject come on over to The_Koffee_Klatch!

~~~~~~~

I only had to think about this for a micro second.  I then stopped and thought long and hard, was this the direction I wanted to take? It turns out that the micro second was plenty of time. 

I am well aware that this is going to sound sappy and idealistic... It's also going to sound like I'm a naive baby that hasn't lived any real life...  Oh I have... I truly have...  However in this area of my life I do have a blessing... or at least I choose to make it one!

So without further ado...

My love story is a fairytale in motion…  My first love was and is the man I married… though he wasn't exactly a man back then!

~~~~~~~

Dear Ryan Laube,

I’m seven and I have lost my heart to you completely…   I have known you my whole life and tonight at church you stole my heart with a comment about the wedding we would have one day.  I can’t wait to marry you and live happily ever after.

I’m thirteen and you still hold my heart.  There has never been anyone else and my heart is breaking.  My family is leaving the church and I won’t see you anymore.  Don’t forget me?

I’m 17 and dating a great guy.  You are here and I see you across the room, just back from basic training standing proud in your dress blues, and in this moment I know that if you would just smile at me and hold out your hand like you did all those years ago I would walk away from him forever to be by your side.   But you don’t.

I’m 19…  He’s gone and my heart is broken… I’ve never forgotten you but you’ve been so far out of reach for so long that when we are thrown together unexpectedly the sight of you sends a shock into my very soul.  In that moment I know that I am yours and you are mine… even if you don’t yet.   I can’t wait to marry you and live happily ever after.

Later that year I did marry you… I walked down the aisle with my eyes fixed on yours and we ran boldly into the future together…

It’s been 11 years and I’ve never looked back.  It is a blessing I do not take lightly to be living my happily ever after with you.  Our life together is beautiful and though it has had moments of pain and tragedy and times of not so ‘happily ever after’ I wouldn't’t change a thing.  I would not miss a moment we have had together or a moment of our life to come...

Eleven years have passed since the day we married… 23 years have passed since the day I knew you would be the boy I loved forever.  I’m still that girl…

you’re still that boy…

and yet we are so much more… with a boy of our own.

You are far away from me today as I sit and write this letter. 

It will be a long while before I see your face again… and yet I know that just as our love survived all the little separations of our youth and all the separations that have come in the years in between, it will survive this one… and grow.

You hold my heart as you always have. 

From your first love,

Courtney Laube

He's gone... I'm sure you guessed from some of the things I've said here and there.  No happily married woman with her husband home beside her sits around and watches House Hunters International and sappy romance movies into the wee small hours...  But I believe strongly in OPSEC and so I couldn't say anything... Today I can.

I just received a message from Ryan (I was changing Isaac's diaper and missed his call) and he has reached his final destination.  All I can tell you is that he's now in Afghanistan and that it will be some time before he has access to regular communication.  That's pretty much all I can tell you... that's pretty much all I'll ever be able to say...  The next thing you'll hear from me on this subject will probably be the news that he's home sometime around 6-7 months from now.  I can say that I crave your prayers for his protection over the next six months.  He's not safe... but he's in God's hands...

This means that Isaac and I are getting ready to move back home to Phoenix.  I have a few more treatments and then I'm free to go.  As it now stands my Mom and Dad will arrive on the 21st and spend a few days helping me get everything in order to leave for six months and then I'll be off.  We will spend a day or two in Phoenix and then we'll be off for the cabin in Prescott where I will spend the majority of my time.  (Don't worry family I'm going to come down for extended weekends so that I have time to spend with everyone!)  It should be a nice experience for Isaac and I.  The weather there is much cooler and there are a lot of fun things to do outdoors which will be so good for Isaac.  I'm excited!

Now a fun story about Spock to make this email a little more interesting....

Spock almost died today.  My father would have been "In Search of Spock" (har har) when he arrived here in a few weeks because this dog was almost buried out in the desert somewhere...  Don't worry I've cooled down but it was a near miss...  (Okay okay not really I love him too much but goodness was I mad!)

I woke up at 6am and took my shower... as I do every morning.  I then went about my day and did my chores, had my breakfast, and spent some time online.  Isaac slept in so I got a few more chores in and on my rounds happened to peek into the guest room.

Now let me take a moment to say that a few weeks ago my guest room was the black hole of my home.  Everything I didn't have time to deal with was thrown in there along with tons of debris from Ryan's deployment preparations... in fact I have a picture!

It gives me heart palpitations just looking at this picture... BUT over the past few weeks I slowly and steadily cleared it out.  Everything got taken care of and put in it's place and in the week since Ryan has been gone it has become it's perfect beautiful welcoming self. 

Two days ago I washed the sheets and remade the bed, fluffed up the pillows and got everything ready for mom and dad to be here in a little while... 

Okay back to this morning...

I peeked into the guest room and almost screamed! 

The animal that inhabits my home had ripped open two bed pillows and thrown the stuffing everywhere... thank heaven I don't have feather pillows... He tore the blanket to shreds and pulled off all the sheets... He piled most of this mess in the dead center of the guest bed and then proceeded to PEE ALL OVER THE MESS!

After my vision came back from red I started to clean up the mess and found that the pee had not only saturated the mess but had also gone through the (supposedly) waterproof mattress pad and into the very expensive Temperpedic foam mattress topper!!!!  I clenched my jaw and set about cleaning that as well... then I pulled it back only to find that the pee had soaked through the topper and into the mattress!!!

Yes the dog is alive... I hope I got the guest bed cleaned and will take the next few weeks to air it out and hope for the best... and again... yes the dog is alive.

Have I told you lately just how much I hate puppies?

Okay "funny" story over... keep Ryan in your prayers and I'll let you know what I can when I can. 

Courtney

Today I am praying this Psalm over Ryan's life.  Join me?

~~~~~~~

Psalm 91

Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God

1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 
2 I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." 
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. 
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6  Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. 
7 A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
8  Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.
9  Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10  No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11  For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you  in all your ways.
12  In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13  You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

14  "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
16  With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation."

A Vision of Lucy

by Margaret Brownley

Lucy is a woman ahead of her time!  She lives and breaths photography and wants to make it her profession. Not an easy task for a woman in 1882, but she is determined because photography is her art.  Unfortunately Lucy is prone to trouble and just keeps landing in hot water over and over again.  When she literally drops in on a stage robbery her life is forever changed.  She meets David Wolf, a man who lives between two worlds and has a haunted past that he is trying to catch up with.  Will Lucy be able to help David see beyond the scars of his past?  Will David see Lucy for who she really is? 

This book started out slow for me.  I just couldn't get into it but kept going because I don't like to leave a book unfinished.  I'm glad I persevered.  This turned out to be such an interesting read!  I learned some very interesting things about early photography that make me treasure my beloved point and shoot and genuinely appreciate the difficulty of what Lucy aspires to be.  The plot was interesting and after the initial lag it kept me interested.  The characters were believable and their struggles real and poignant.  I also appreciated the way that the characters worked through their relationships with God as they moved through life. 

Overall this was an intriguing book.  I recommend it if you are interested in early photography or if you just want a decent story to keep you company and get you thinking.