What's Good

This is my current favorite picture. It represents what is good in my life right now. When everything else seems to be falling all around me, my day begins and ends with this.

Some Days You've Got It, Some Days You Don't

Sometimes I feel as if Reagan's growing skills are a metaphor for my life right now. She has been learning some killer tricks with her body lately. There is nothing more entertaining to me than watching her play on the floor. But, sometimes she has an easier time than others.

This is her at her best. She is strong, ready to rock, and she can take on anything the world throws at her.

Other days are not so awesome. She tries really hard and gets through the day, but she never quite takes off.

Why did I get out of bed this morning?

Time Flies

Alright. I realize that a significant amount of time has passed since I last wrote and that I have neglected some pretty important events in my blog. It would be virtually impossible to do them all justice. So, suffice it to say : #1 I had a baby girl June 14, 2009. We named her Reagan Abby Jenkins. #2 Cory deployed for a year to Afghanistan. I will be better about keeping up in the future. Here is a feeble attempt to tell the story in pictures. By the way, she is sitting on my lap as I write this post. She is a born blogger!

Baby shower

Within an hour of Reagan's birth. She is adorable. I look disgusting.

1 Day old in the hospital

Chillin' with Dad during a nap

4 days old at home

She started out with a really chill personality.....I don't know where that went.

Cory called her "my parrot" because she like to fall asleep perched.

3 weeks old with cousin Natalya

In her blessing dress, 3 weeks old

On Reagan's blessing day

Matching with cousin Corrine, 3 weeks

I thought the flower that was bigger than her was cute. Dad thought it was ridiculous. Luckily, I get to make all decisions when it comes to dressing her. 4 weeks

Goodbye party for Cory (Jenkins, Mortensens, Beylers, Braughtons, Van Woerkoms, Storys). July 16

Cory's departure day, July 19. I realize her flower looks like a headlamp....It slipped down.

Getting on the bus to leave.

Cory running back to tell me goodbye for one last time.

6 weeks old. Just woke up, or not.

Showing her new talent. She really is freakishly strong for her age. 8 weeks.

A family pic, 8 weeks and 27 years :) She does this little number a lot. I was getting her ready to go to bed.Another new talent, a shifty side smile. It takes alot of effort to get this on camera. 9 weeks

Yesterday. I wanted a pic of her in her first blue jeans. She is stylin'!

The Perfect Day

Cory and I both had a DONSA (Day Of No Scheduled Activity) on Friday, so we decided to take advantage of it. We have lived in this blessed state for 16 months now and we had never been down to see the sights in Seattle. So, in true tourist fashion, we packed up our cameras and walking shoes and headed into town. Its about a 50 minute drive from our home to the city center of Seattle. Our first stop was the Pacific Science Center. This was my suggestion mostly for Cory's sake. But do you know what? I had an absolute blast. It was mostly geared towards little kids, so we had a fine time acting very juvenile and trying out all the little experiments.
My favorite parts were the IMAZ 3-D movie "Under the Sea" and the butterfly house. I had never been to a 3-D movie before and it sufficiently knocked my socks off in the IMAX theater. I thought we looked pretty hot in our glasses.The butterfly house was seriously one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced. They have this big tropical rainforest where they released thousands of butterflys. They let you to walk around and get close to all the beautiful creatures. It was kind of like a petting zoo, but way cooler. They landed on people all the time and they had to check you for butterflys as you left the building. It was awesome to be that close to so many magnificent creatures.


After the Science Center, we walked to this little local burger joint hot-spot called "Dick's". It was sort of like IN-N-OUT, but not quite as good. Then we walked FOREVER down to this huge indoor/outdoor marketplace called "PIKE PLACE MARKET". This is the place where they throw the fish through the air to each other when you buy one. We didn't buy one. I made a personal choice long ago to never spend 650$ on a halibut.
That was cool, but the coolest part was all of the international little "hole in the wall" restaurants. You could literally buy food from just about every country on earth. We had some pastries from a french bakery and then Cory bought a piroshky (meat pie) and borscht from this little Russian cafe. He was in heaven....I thought it was really greasy, but palattable.
After the meat pie, I deserved a real treat, so we stopped at Starbucks and had Frappucinos(non-coffee, silly) and hot chocolate. I....Love....Frappucinos. They are one of my worst weaknesses. They may even keep me out of heaven. Anyway, here is our horrible tourist picture. The whole day was FANTASTIC!

Give the people what they want...

I am not sure what the fascination you people have with how fat I am getting is all about, but after multiple requests, I decided to post another pregnancy profile pic. I have recently started doing water aerobics to keep my girlish figure. Here is a candid action shot that was taken during our class.

Just kidding about the aerobics class. I would never do that much exercise. I didn't have anyone to snap my pic, so I will call this one "Brooke alone in the bathroom taking pictures of her fat self". Or maybe I'll just title it "30 weeks-The Journey is 75% Over" (I'm a math teacher...can you tell? :)

A Game

Chess is just a game....until your husband becomes the pawn. Most all of my posts are light and tend to be humorous (or atleast I think so:) ). This one is intensely personal. We have known since we were engaged that Cory was scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 2009. This was something that caused me anxiety and worry. But, Iraq is a war that is deescalating. The troops are not even allowed inside the cities anymore. He would go and spend 99% of his time in a building with four walls out in the country. Contact with families was much more established and phone calls and emails were a regular occurence. I figured "Hey, if things have to suck, atleast this is as good as I could ask for". The Department of Defense made an announcement on Tuesday that those plans were changing. They need emergency troops to go to an extremely hostile region of Afghanistan (I hate that I even know how to spell the name of that country) and open it up for occupation. The danger is multiplied umpteenth times and means of communication with families has not been set up in the same way. He will probably live in a tent. Also, they need the troops NOW. We don't know if he will be around for our baby girl's birth. Everything feels like it is temporary and unreliable. I sometimes wonder if the "big guys" consider, think about, or even care about the ramifications of the movements of their little pawns.....

Please take a look at the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcK7Dtdxz_Q

Two views

Outside of me at 21 weeks

Inside of me at 21 weeks.

I think that so far she looks like a Bertha. What do you think?

When did HE grow up?!

Just wanted to do a shout out and announcement for my little bro. First of all, I need to start with the fact that I think I am in denial that this is even happening. My LITTLE brother apparently is old enough to go and get married. I don't know if you know my brother, but he's kind of....weird. I mean that in the nicest form of the word. It really is a compliment. I look up to him and he is a hero of mine. Somehow, he convinced this lovely young lady that she could handle that weirdness for time and all eternity. So, congratulations Spencer and Ashley on your engagement. March 14 is just around the corner.

Don't worry. She's not mine.

I have a lot of catch up to do. First of all, my sister Phoebe had her sweet adorable little baby girl. Yea! Her name is Corinne and she was born on 21 January. She weighed 6lb. 3 oz. (a whopper for Phoebe). I think she has attitude. She'll fit right in :)

The Turning of a Page

I wouldn't be able to call myself an historian if I didn't pay homage to the events of today. I will try and make this short and sweet. I did not vote for Mr. Obama and there many points of his policy that don't jive with my own idealogy. But, I respect him as a good man and a charismatic leader. I think American's needed a fresh change, and they got it. The significance of today in regards to equality in America also does not escape me. We have come to the point where race really does not matter, and I believe that is exactly as God would have it. But, to sum up my feelings, I will quote a man who wrote a note to the new President. He said "I sure hope you are everything they say you are going to be, because you are going to need it." May God continue to bless America.

18 WEEKS!

For those of you who are asking, I am due on 6/21 and I find out what I am having on February 2nd. I am finally getting to the point that I feel less like I just ate a big lunch and more like there is an actual kid floating around in there (though I can't confirm any movements yet). I saw an old soldier of mine in the store a week or two ago. After we chatted for a bit, and as we were parting, she says "Are you pregnant?" Wow! You are good! Uh, yeah. I am. But you are the first person who has asked without me telling them first. Her response? "Well, you just used to be so skinny"....... Thanks. I think.

The Tooth Fairy

I know this isn't about me, but it was the funniest story of the day. My friend Tiffany's 6 yr. old daughter Madison lost a tooth on Sunday. She was so excited she ran up and told me at church. I always love talking to her because she has an older sister named Brooke as well. In order to distinguish between us, she calls her sister by her beautiful first name and she calls me "Silly Brooke". I don't know where she got that from. Anyway, I digress. She showed me her tooth, or lack therof. We of course engaged in a conversation about the great loot she would find under her pillow the next morning. Well, apparently the Tooth Fairy also had MLK day off. We went out to dinner with them for family night and she disclosed to me that, in fact, the tooth fairy had not come by the night before. I told her to believe her mother, that the Tooth Fairy also takes federal holidays just like the rest of us. I almost peed my pants this morning when I called Tiffany and she told me that the Tooth Fairy AGAIN had not made the drop the night before. She said she felt so bad she went to her purse to get money to give her daughter and she did not have any! So, while her daughter prepared for school she snuck in her room and stole 4 quarters out of her daughter's piggy bank and gave her her own money! You really can't find good help anywhere anymore.

A Pinch of This, a Dash of That

SKYDIVING

So, Cory didn't really get me a Christmas gift......But he made up for it, and POOF! All was forgiven. He took me skydiving, something I have wanted to do for such a long time. I surprised myself by not being that scared at all. It wasn't any more scary than a great thrill ride at Six Flags, plus a whole lot more fun. I know, I know. Some of you may be saying "Girl! You can't be skydiving while your pregnant!" Well, I just did. Anyway, the research on skydiving while pregnant is inconclusive..... :)

Us in our hot jumpsuits

Cory slowly descending to earth.....

For a perfect landing! Not!

That's me coming down. I don't even need to include a pic of the landing. It was textbook, like a butterfly.

Me as a conehead with the good man that preserved my life for the ride down.

STUPIDITY

Cory has a bit of a tradition going. I am still trying to figure out the hellish origins of it. Every single New Year's day, he feels compelled to jump into a icy lake for a "polar bear" dip. It is truly one of the most masochistic things I have ever witnessed. If you will notice, he convinced some other poor sap to go with him, not myself. Hey! I paid my dues last New Year's in a lake surrounded by snow in "beautiful" British Columbia, Canada. I get a pass.

Christmas

Just a hodge-podge of pics. I had to include a picture of our rather pathetic tree. As an army widow this December, the task was up to me to go out and pick a tree, load it into the truck, and single handedly set it up in the stand, not to mention decorate it. I am extremely proud of my accomplishments. I firmly believe that setting up a Christmas tree with only 2 hands should be an Olympic sport. 3 hours later...TADA!

Would you believe me if I told you it doesn't actually snow in our neck of the woods? You can imagine the mess it created when it did for over a week this year.

I took advantage of the snow. I put on all my snow gear, went to the corner gas station to buy a hot chocolate, and went on a one and a half mile walk in the snow that took me over an hour. Some people never grow up...

We went down to my sister Phoebe's house in Hyrum, Utah. I couldn't believe how fun it was to spend Christmas with little kids again. They make everything an experience. I can tell you what wasn't fun, though. A 13 hour return home drive that turned into 24 hours + due to road closures and driving 30 mph most of the way because of a terrible snow storm.

Phoebe and Greyson decorating gingerbread houses.

Brooke and Natalya working on their architecture.

Christmas morning. Go ahead. Try and tell me it gets cuter than that.

Brooke and Cory Christmas morning, in our tradition PJ's.

Actually, one of the highlights on the trip for me was driving down to Ogden to see some friends from my mission. We stopped by President and Sister Joyce's house and had a great chat. She asked me if I had lost weight....I swear the good Lord reserved a place in heaven for that woman.

PREGNANCY PROFILE PIC-15 1/2 weeks

slowly but surely