Thursday, February 22, 2024

Life Update

 Life has been overwhelming, to say the least. We currently are on month 5 of Courtney’s deployment and unfortunately, Covid hit our household. And not just Covid, we had to add strep and pink eye to it all. 

I think they know us pretty well here at the Sumter Urgent Care because I have now been there once a week for the last 3 weeks. 2 times for Logan and once for McKenna. 

Thankfully and surprisingly, McKaila has come out of all of this just fine. I continue to ask her, “are you feeling okay?” I’m guessing by now she’s probably over that question, but I just can’t believe through all of this, she’s the only one that has escaped the sickness. 

So, yup, we got hit with the Covid, but it didn’t start off with that. We started it all off with Logan getting pink eye. He has gotten pink eye before, so I knew right away that morning, we needed to go to urgent care and get it looked at so we could get drops. I was right and he did have pink eye, which started in his left eye and then went to his other eye. 

Onto the next week….

McKenna woke up one morning complaining that her throat was hurting. I honestly didn’t think anything of it, just told her to make sure she drinks enough water at school. A couple hours into the school day, I get a call from the school nurse, McKenna was with her complaining of a sore throat. The nurse did look at her throat and said it looked very irritated, so I wasn’t going to take any chances. I picked her up from school and we went straight to urgent care. They did a covid and strep test on her. After waiting 45 minutes, we find out she tested negative for strep but positive for covid. Let the quarantine begin.

And, just as I thought we were all in the clear, I, yup, me, Heather, woke up with pink eye. On the worst day that I could wake up with pink eye. On Logans birthday. My eyes were puffy, they hurt and was thankful that we had plenty of drops left over from Logan having pink eye, that I could start using those drops. 


Now, to this week. Logan had been dealing with a cough all weekend and wasn’t letting up with the medicine I was giving him, so we woke up Monday morning and got to urgent care just as they opened. They did a covid and strep test on him and well… he tested positive for both, so no school for him for the rest of the week. 

I’m truly hoping that we are now in the clear of all this grossness. I’m more than over it! 

I’m over this deployment

I’m over our kids not feeling well

I’m over doing this all by myself 

I AM JUST OVER IT ALL!!!

These last few weeks have tested me in every way possible. It’s been hard, real hard and an emotional roller coaster that I’m so ready to get off of. But, we are making it though it. It may have been the hardest month ever, but it showed me, that I am stronger than I give myself credit for. 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Happy 9th Birthday, Logan James!

 9 YEARS OLD!!

Slow down time, I’m so not ready for this. 

As soon as February hit, Logan started to count down the days until his big day. He was so excited and every day he would have something new to add to his birthday list. 




I will be forever grateful for technology these days, especially on special days like birthdays. We had a row of phones with family on FaceTime, so they could be part of watching Logan open presents. Courtney even woke up in the middle of the night to watch him open presents, which Logan was very worried about. He didn’t want daddy to miss out on it all. 




Starting with first thing in the morning, when he walked down to see all his presents waiting for him, he knew exactly what ones he wanted to open first and the one that would be the very last one. 

So, when we got home from school and got everyone on FaceTime, he knew exactly what order he wanted to open his presents. But, like he told me over and over again, he needed to open the cards first. He’s such a sweet boy, I love him so much!!.

He was overly excited that the first present he opened was lots of NASCAR diecasts, it’s always number one on his lists for anything. And just like every other birthday, this boy was spoiled. Probably more so from us because I have been trying my hardest to make all these birthdays and holidays without Courtney being here with us, a little extra special. 






Between all the Buc-ees stuff, Legos and Michigan Championship gear, I believe Logan got most of the stuff that was on his birthday list. 

As for the last 2 presents that he made sure were last, the second to last one was a set of golf clubs. Logan has been begging Courtney since moving here, if they can rent a golf cart and go golfing and it just hasn’t happened yet. I guess when you live on a golf course it’s bound to happen that we have golfers in the family. So, now Logan has his own set that he’s excited to use when Courtney gets home from deployment. 

The last present was an extra big squishmallow and the best part of it… it’s a moose!! He had an inkling it was a squishmallow, but he had no clue it was going to be as big as it was! He has really enjoyed snuggling up in it and relaxing, that’s for sure. 



No better way to end your birthday with some birthday brownies, topped with 9 candles! 



Logan sure had a great birthday, but we weren’t done yet. We had to go out for a birthday dinner. Due to his birthday being on a weekday, we decided to wait until the weekend to have a birthday dinner out. Logan had a hard time picking exactly where he wanted to go, but in the end he picked Palmetto Oyster House. 

We had a delicious dinner and it was the perfect way to end the celebration of our little man turning 9 years old!





Thursday, January 11, 2024

I’m an Auntie!


Can’t believe we made it on time, but we did! The kids and I arrived at the hospital right before they took Amber back to have a c-section. 

I’m so grateful that the kids and I were able to be there, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way! Amber was there for me when McKaila was being born and now I was able to repay her by being there for her while her first child was being born. 

The question still remained….

Will it be a boy or a girl?!?


 I’m an AUNTIE!!

Congrats to Amber and Jojo on the birth of their baby!!

A baby girl!!

Skylar Jo!!

I was convinced from the very beginning that they were going to have a boy, so when Jojo came to get me so I could be with Amber in recovery, I was in complete shock when she told me it was a girl. Once the initial shock wore off that I have a little niece, I had to call Courtney!! He stayed up very late to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He is one proud uncle and he looks forward to finally coming home and holding his little niece in his arms. 

The kids were waiting with Jojo to come back to the room, so they still didn’t know if their cousin was a boy or girl, so time to find out!! I went and got the kids and we quickly went back to the room. The kids were so excited hearing that Auntie had a girl, especially McKenna. She was more than ready to get her hands on little Skylar.





The girls couldn’t get enough of Skylar and wanted to continue to hold her. As for Logan. He wasn’t too sure about it. He was a little weary because she was so tiny, so he decided that he didn’t want to hold her, just wanted to give her kisses on the cheek. 

Amber and Skylar were doing so well in the hospital, that they released them the next night and we were all eagerly awaiting their arrival home, so we could enjoy more Skylar cuddles.

And we got in a lot of cuddles, that’s for sure. Logan even started feeling more comfortable and held Skylar a couple different times before it was time to head back home.








Unfortunately, the cuddles had to come to an end and we needed to head back home. I sure am thankful that we were able to be there to welcome little Skylar Jo into the world and we look forward to watching her grow into a beautiful young lady! 




WE LOVE YOU, SKYLAR JO!! 



Monday, December 25, 2023

Christmas Time

 It’s Christmas morning!!

The kids were so excited to run down the stairs Christmas morning and see what they got from Santa, but I told them they had to wait for me to come get them before they were allowed to come downstairs. They weren’t a fan of that news, but I wanted to be able to see their faces when they first came downstairs. Plus, Courtney said he would be able to FaceTime, so he wanted to be able to see their faces too. 

Because, we were on FaceTime with Courtney, I didn’t get photos of the kids when they first saw their presents, but that didn’t really matter to me in the moment. I was just happy that Courtney was able to be apart of that moment with us. 

While the kids and I were opening our presents, we had great company on FaceTime. We had Courtney, my parents, along with Amber and Jojo. Courtney wasn’t able to be apart of all of the opening of presents because he had to get back to work, but I’m just feeling super blessed that he was at least able to be a part of it in some sort of way. 








I was trying to be more in the moment while the kids were opening their presents, so I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do. I love taking pictures and love looking back on those moments, but I knew I just needed to just enjoy these moments a little bit more and put the camera down. 

The kids were spoiled, I was spoiled and we all feel extremely thankful for everything we received. 

Our Christmas Day isn’t complete without making some pizza for dinner. We had to improvise with our pizza making because normally our pizza crust is made by Courtney, but this year Trader Joe’s made it and let me tell you, it was pretty dang yummy!

It was a little different than what we normally would do, but even though I had doubts in my head about doing this on my own, everything turned out ok, better then what my thoughts were telling me. 




We may not have had our whole family together this Christmas, but we are beyond grateful that we have FaceTime and were able to be connected in that way on Christmas Day! 

Much love to you all on Christmas and Happy New Year!


Sunday, December 24, 2023

Christmas Eve

 Our holiday season was a difficult one because we were missing a part of us with Courtney not being here with us, but we made the best of it all. I tried my best in every way possible to make every part of the holiday a special one for the kids. 


It was hard on all of us that we were about to do all things Christmas without Courtney being here with us to enjoy it all. It was a pretty emotional roller coaster for me, but I had to put all those emotions behind me and make this Christmas Eve just like all the rest of them. 



It’s Christmas Eve, which means, it’s time to make cookies. 

I’m not one to bake cookies, that’s Courtney’s thing every year, so to start the cookie making process, I really was doubting myself. Can I do this on my own? Will I be able to make this Christmas special for the kids, without Courtney being here with us? I just lost my mind in all the emotions and I didn’t think I could do any of it on my own. 

But, I did it. 
Doing things like this without Courtney, was a new level of emotions. 

We made some sugar cookies and to add a Christmas twist to them, we put some red and green sprinkles into the dough before we cooked them. The cookies turned out very yummy and the kids were excited to get to decorating them. 








The kids always love being creative and couldn’t wait to get started on decorating the cookies.They each decorated a special cookie to leave for Santa and then decorated the rest to enjoy themselves. 


The kids and I ended our Christmas Eve just like every other Christmas Eve. We got in our Christmas pjs, popped some popcorn and watched The Polar Express. 

Once the popcorn was gone and the movie was done, it was time to prepare Santas plate to leave out for him and the reindeer. 

As always, Christmas Eve night is not complete without the reading of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. 



Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!