Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

This verse is one we have been clinging to lately. With all the questions we don't have answers to yet, we have to remember that we must keep our trust in God; and he will bless us more than we could ever imagine. We are praying we will have some answers soon, but we are also remembering we must be patient.

For now, we are going to live in the present and not dwell on the future. So, here is a recap of this past week. After much prayer and talking, we have decided it is best that I return to my job as a stay at home mom. This is was an extremely hard decision to make, but sometimes we have to do things that we really don't want to do. As of September 1st, I will be home.

Hydie and Daddy Heading Down to the River

Carter now has 3 teeth. He is continuing to practice walking and has mastered getting into everything. Hydie is still the princess and LOVES her dress up clothes. She has recently masted the "big" playground (she use to be terrified of the tunnel slide). Hydie has also learned to count to 15 in order and she is working very hard on her alphabet.

The other night I was giving myself a little pedicure and cutting Hydie's finger nails. After Hydie was done, she decided Daddy needed a pedicure too. I'm sure Carter would have had to endure the "fun" also, but he lucked out and was already in bed. John was a great sport, and he allowed Hydie to work on his feet. He's such a great daddy!

Update Time!

Where has this month gone? Has it really been 3 weeks since I posted? Our simple little life is definitely not so simple anymore. It seems as time is moving way faster now than it ever has before. Hydie and Carter are growing like crazy and Mommy and Daddy can't keep up.

Hydie finally had her adenoid and tubes surgery on July 22nd. She did wonderfully through the 10 minute surgery and complained more about the band-aid on her hand from where the IV was placed than anything. That afternoon she did however begin to complain that everything was TOO LOUD! Our poor little girl has had so much fluid in/behind her ears since she was tiny that she had no idea how loud everything was. She is still doing very well and hasn't had a problem. Carter will be going to his pre-surgery appointment on Thursday of next week for tubes since he also has continuous ear infections. His surgery will probably be mid-September.

The Coast Guard celebrated it's 220th Birthday on August 4th. To celebrate, the MWR provided activities throughout base. For the kids, they filled the gym with inflatables. We also enjoyed face painting and hot dogs. The kids had a blast!

Carter is officially walking with support. This means he is walking as long as he is holding onto something or someone. He is into EVERYTHING and loves to attempt to sneak into the bathroom. Hydie has learned to "correct" him by saying, "NO CARTER, GET OUT!" This is quite funny because our little 2 year old sounds SO grown up! Oh where is our time going? My babies are growing way too fast! Hydie's a preschooler now (bye bye toddler days) and Carter is almost a toddler (there definitely were not enough infant days). SO that's a recap for now.

Pictures, Birthdays, Bowling, Picnics.....

Yes, you can say we have kept ourselves busy these past couple weeks. I know, if I had blogged last week I wouldn't have SO much to talk about tonight. However, I am going to try to update you all on everything that has been happening in our lives.

Last week, it rained a LOT. My coworkers (locals) were all complaining about the rain and a few even mentioned moving to Hawaii. I had to giggle a little at this statement because from what I've heard, it rains a lot in Hawaii too. I wonder if my new favorite Kodiakians really know what they are wishing for. Don't worry, the sun finally appeared again and we attempted to spend every waking moment outside on those pretty days.

I received a call at work 2 Thursdays ago from the director of the CDC (child development center on base) letting me know there were available spots for BOTH kids to start.....the following MONDAY. The last time we spoke, we were looking at approximately Sept./Oct. before there would be spots available. I was in shock, but I did not have time to sit still on this one. I immediately got on the phone with the doctor's office requesting shot records and medical forms. After speaking with my favorite nurse Crystal (who is also a Coastie wife) and getting all the medical paperwork taken care of, I then had to meet with the teachers. I met with Carter's teacher on Friday and his first day was Monday. Hydie's teacher was out the week we were offered the spots so I had to wait until Monday to meet with her, and Hydie started on Tuesday. Both kids seems to really enjoy it, and the cook and Hydie's teachers are doing a fantastic job accommodating Hydie's food allergies.

Tuesday of last week (Hydie's first day of daycare), it was muggy and gross all day. We had planned to have family pictures taken by Amy at 6 p.m. that afternoon. We hoped for some outdoor shots, but I definitely planned for that not to happen. As we were in Amy's home posing for her awesome camera, I began to smile even bigger. The sun was coming out from behind the clouds and the rain had finally moved out!!! Now, we had NO excuse not to do outdoor pictures, and I am VERY thankful for the opportunity because Amy did an amazing job!

Thursday afternoon, I spent cleaning my office and packing up for the weekend. KANA had their annual picnic on Friday which meant I didn't have to go to "work." Everyone seem to walk with a spring in their step Thursday afternoon. The kids and I head to the picnic Friday morning. We all had a great time, and Hydie even ran her first race! I hate John missed it, but he couldn't take off.

Carter and Genieve (HR Director for KANA) at the KANA Picnic

Hydie hula-hooping during her very first "race"

After the week we both had, John and I decided we needed to doing something fun. John called our friend Andrew to see if they would like to join us for a night of bowling. I haven't been bowling since 2 nights before Carter was born. We had a blast, and I still can't bowl worth a flip but it was tons of fun.

Saturday, July 17th was my 23rd birthday and John's duty day. It was pretty muggy outside, and Carter was extremely fussy with his cold and teething. The kids and I enjoyed our morning of boringness, but we finally spunked up later that afternoon. I called my friend Danielle to see if she wanted to join us at the park and then head to dinner. It was my birthday after all, and I refused to cook. We met up with a few of my friends whom I haven't seen in quite a while at the park, and it was nice chatting and catching up with everyone. Thank you again Danielle for helping make my birthday a great one!

Sunday FINALLY got here! John came home from duty and loaded Hydie in the Explorer and headed to town. He wouldn't tell me what he was after, but I kind of had a clue. They were gone for a while, but Carter and I didn't really mind. He and I snuggled in the big chair and played. Sunday night, John cooked an amazing steak dinner with birthday cake for dessert! He even bought Hydie diary free ice cream so she could have a treat too. He also had a beautiful bouquet of pink roses on the dining table and two gift bags. I couldn't wait to see what he and Hydie had picked out. The first bag had 3 jar candles and the other had 3 beautiful picture frames. The frames were for the pictures Amy had taken on Tuesday. Thank you to my loves!!! You definitely made this birthday special (even if we did celebrate a day late)!!!!

God Bless America

This is our 4th Independence Day being a military family. I am so proud to say that my husband is a part of what allows our nation to be the "Land of the Free." No, it is not easy and yes we have days that we ask why are we doing this, but on days like today I know we are doing exactly what God has called us to do. We thank you for standing behind our military and supporting them.

Earlier in the week, John was promoted to ET2. To celebrate his promotion and July 4th, we invited a few friends over for a barbeque on Saturday night. We had a great time enjoying fellowship with our friends. It was kind of a bittersweet night for me. While preparing for the event, I decided to make "family recipes." I was given a homemade cookbook with hand written index cards of all my family's favorite recipes when John and I got married, so I started looking for "cook-out" recipes. I made Ms. Robbie potato salad and homemade ice cream, and I used Brittany's Flag cake and Mrs. Evon's cream cheese pound cake recipe to make dessert. Everything came out perfect and I have to say the potato salad was almost to die for. Wonderful!!

While cleaning and getting ready for everyone to arrive, Hydie and I were placing flags on the tables. Well, this led to a mini photo shoot of Hydie and Carter with their flags. Might I clarify myself, it was one flag that Carter kept stealing from Hydie. Now you understand the reason for the not so great pictures.

After dinner while the guys played a round of poker, we brought out the bounce house for the girls (Hydie and Alyssa) to play outside since it was beautiful. The girls played and played. We even got brave enough to let Carter play with the big girls. This was his first time in the bouncer so he was quite confused on what exactly he was suppose to do. The girls jumped until about 10 p.m. when we all decide that it was getting too cold and the bug were too bad to stay out any longer.

After getting warmed up inside, we decided to drive up the hill to Upper Government housing to Lookout Point and watch the fireworks at midnight. This was the first time we have seen fireworks in Kodiak because every year it has been raining and too fogger to shoot them. We were really too far away for good pictures, but this is what we saw.

We hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!

Exciting News!!!

Can you guess who is who?

After framing these to put in our bathroom, I realized how

much our babies look alike! Kind of scary actually!!

This has definitely been a very exciting week in the Gallagher house! After not hearing anything about jobs on Monday, I went to bed a little let down. However, that did not last long! Tuesday morning I get a call from Genieve from KANA (Kodiak Alaska Native Association) offering me the administrative assistant job!!!! God is SO good!!! After that call, my schedule filled up very quickly for the day. The kids and I ran all over the place meeting about daycare stuff, getting drug tested (me not the kids), getting medical paperwork filled out, and tons more. We were wiped out but over the moon! Hydie and I even made hydie-friendly brownies to celebrate!

Wednesday I began my cleaning madness and organizing for the Sunday yard sale. Thursday I became an official KANA employee. I am now the new KANA Community Services Administrative Assistant to 6 different administrators. Yes, I think it sound very professional :). John then cooked some amazing halibut that night. Carter had his first real meat....halibut. Yes, he's an Alaskan baby! He loved every bite!!!

Friday, we even got more good news. John will be an ET2 as of July 1st!!! I am SO proud of him! He definitely deserves this promotion! Sunday we had a yard sale with another Coastie family and were able to get rid of a bit of our stuff. I am so thankful to have at least some of that stuff out of our house. After the yard sale, I was back in cleaning mode and getting everything organized and "ready" for my first official week of work. My wonderful friend Danielle is coming to our house during the day to watch the kids. We are so blessed to have the Pack family back in our lives! So, now we are to today, also know as Jade's first day of work in the past 2 years. Man was it hard to get going this morning. I did have lots of butterflies and nervous this morning, but they soon faded and I really enjoyed my first day of work. I already have 2 full pages of tasks I need to accomplish in the next couple days. I very much appreciate all the many thoughts and prayers about the job! Now, I am praying that the kids will get in the CDC (daycare on base) soon. Danielle will be keeping them until the CDC has spots available, but we would really like to get them in as soon as possible. Thanks for all the prayers!

This is Carter's new favorite past-time, getting stuck under the table!

Fishing and Father's Day Fun!

We have had a semi-productive week I guess you would call it. We went to the park several times, I baked, John went halibut fishing, John and Hydie went fishing, I had an interview, Hydie and I had movie night, we celebrated Father's Day, and I saw my first "dumpster diving bear." Yeah, I would say we've had a week worth writing about!

John and our neighbor Andrew finally after many attempts to rent the Coast Guard morale rental boats were about to go out halibut fishing. I believe this was Andrew's first time halibut fishing. To say the least, they had a blast! After being gone most of the day, I get a text message from John saying that he wished Andrew would quit catching all the fish and give him a turn. I assume it was beginners luck that Andrew kept catching the fish. While waiting on the guys to fish cleaning the boat and hauling the fish and supplies up to the parking lot, Hydie decided she wanted to hang from the ropes like the fishies. So being the non-germaphobe mother that I am, I let her hang from the ropes that are made to hang fish on. Yes, mom I made her wash her hands as soon as we got home. We then spent the rest of the evening packaging fish. Have I told ya'll how wonderful halibut is? If you haven't ever tried any, it's definitely a reason to come to see me! I think that will probably be one of the biggest things I miss about Kodiak when we move.

Thursday night Hydie and I decided since Daddy had a Coast Guard poker tournament to go to that we would have a movie and popcorn night. I finally found Hydie's kettle corn popcorn at Wal-Mart so it was just another reason for us to have a date. Hydie picked Toy Story (1) for us to watch while we were at Wal-Mart. After getting Carter to bed, Hydie and I snuggled up in the big chair and watched Toy Story and ate popcorn. Gosh, I love moments like these! Makes me want to freeze time.

John had to work most of the weekend due to contractors doing installs, and he had duty on Saturday night. Since Daddy was away, I decided to try a new recipe I found for pulled pork in the crock-pot. It cooks for 12 hours and then you take it out and shred it. I started it around 8 p.m. so it would be ready Sunday morning for Father's Day supper that night. I had to give myself time just in case it didn't turn out. Around 2:15 a.m. I was woken up by this loud bang noise and then lighter tap noises. Of course, the first thing that ran through my mind was the crock-pot. I immediately jump out of bed and run to the kitchen expecting the top to the crock-pot to be tossed across the kitchen and there to be roast and onions splattered all over my cabinets....Negative. I then decide that it must have been someone throwing something into the dumpster since the dumpster is right outside our house. I go into the bathroom and look out the window. To my surprise, their is a HUGE bear standing against the dumpster pulling trash out. The only thing I could think at the time was that I needed to call the military police before he does some real damage or gets into the road. I watch milpol drive through with their light on, but the bear in no where in site. After a few minutes, I hear the same noise but this time it sounds farther away. I figure he has moved to the next dumpster across the playground. Then I hear the milpol truck make this loud beep noise. I head back to the window and I see the bear stick his head out of the dumpster and then jump out. Milpol then followed him up through housing and finally off base. My adrenaline continued going the rest of the night. All I could think about was the bear "breaking" into my house because he smelled the roast cooking. No, I have never heard of bears breaking into home because they smell something cooking, but what else was I suppose to think about at 3 a.m.. I'm just thankful John was on watch during all this commotion so he could at least calm me down a little.

These pictures were taken from a friend on base the same night I saw the bear. In the midst of calling milpol I never thought to grab my camera. My camera is now living on my night stand just in case the bear comes back.

Sunday, after John came home from work we finally were able to celebrate Father's Day with him. We had pulled pork sandwiches (that were wonderful by the way), baked beans, fries and key line pie for dessert. We then went to the park by our house and played until bathtime. I hope all my favorite daddies had a very good father's day. Especially Happy Father's Day to my daddy and John's daddy! Thank ya'll both for raising us to be honest, hard working people who love our Lord. We definitely would not be the people we are today if it wasn't for ya'll! We love you!!!

I am still in the job hunting stage, well I guess you can say I have advanced from the hunting stage to the waiting stage. And if you know me, you know I don't wait very well. I am about to go crazy waiting to hear something, anything. Please continue for me to allow God to guide me in the direction He needs me to follow, and that I will know soon as to what that is He wants me to do.