Saturday Night

Saturday night, around 9:15 Mackenzie and I were involved in a car accident. No one was injured, thank God! We were stopped at a red light when we were rear ended by a Ford F250. What followed was pure chaos. My first instinct was to call 911 so that if Mackenzie was hurt help would be there soon. Since I am not all that familiar with street names around this particular area, it was difficult explaining where we were. The driver, Mr. White, was no help at all. My mind was clouded and all I could do was listen to her cry. She looked okay-no bumps, no blood. The 911 operated had instructed me not to remove MC from her car seat, in case there were any neck/head injuries. At this point I was frantic, my cell phone was almost dead and I couldn't get a hold of Nathan. Luckily, an off-duty paramedic, Chris, had witnessed the accident and stopped to help. Chris checked out Mackenzie and believed that she was okay. He suggested that I still have her checked out at the hospital. We were greeted by a State Trooper, EMS and fire engine. Mr. White had still not spoken any words to me and looking back, I am glad he hadn't. Mackenzie and her car seat were removed from the vehicle and into the EMS. The two paramedics were awesome, she had stopped crying at this point and was now playing with a roll of sticky tape. They attempted to tape her head to the seat, but she continued to rip it off. They obviously had no idea who they were dealing with, haha! I gave the Trooper my information and overheard Chris, my friendly, off-duty paramedic, tell the Trooper that he smelled alcohol on Mr. White. WHAT???? I had no time to process, the EMS was waiting on me to take MC to the hospital.

Nathan met Mac and I at the hospital. The moment I saw him I broke down in tears. Mac was putting on a show for the crowd that had gathered around and I was reminded just how precious this little girl is to our family. She has become our everything and for a split second that was jeopardized by an individual that chose to drink and drive.

I later found out that Mr. White hit us traveling at 40-45 mph. He failed his sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer at the scene. He was arrested and charged with a DUI. I was surprised to see that Mr. White is the same age as us, he looked so much older that night. Could that be from heavy drinking? This sounds terrible, but I'm going to say it anyway- I hope that Mr. White sat in jail Saturday night terrified that he may have seriously hurt a baby, my baby.

Due to the fact that Mackenzie and I had to go to the hospital Nathan had to notify his chain of command. I was surprised and thankful for the amount of support we received from his fellow Marines. One of them even came to the hospital at 11:00 to give us a ride home, thanks! It feels good knowing we have people to rely when both sides of the family are so far away.

Check Her Out

Mackenzie has moved from taking a few steps to several. Nathan took this video of her last night. She is holding a photo album that has pictures of her when she was first born, she loves looking at them. Sometimes the room will get very quiet (as a mother, you learn this usually isn't a good thing) and I will find her looking at those pictures.

The second video demonstrates her ability to balance and crawl away from dad. It's hard not to laugh when she falls, she usually jumps right back up. Notice her little butt hanging out of the dress, good thing 10 month old girls still wear onsies!

Picnik

My cousin, Krista, told me about this website called Picnik. It is a photo editing browser that has some of the cutest tools. I was able to play around a bit while Mackenzie took her nap. Here is what I came up with, enjoy! The last picture is my favorite.

By the way, Nathan and I are leaving for a weekend getaway tomorrow morning, hope everyone has a safe, sun-filled Fourth of July!

I'm not sure how to title this post because reading this story has brought up so many emotions. My heart aches for their loss. To start at the beginning click here. This woman is an incredible writer that shares the story of their beautiful daughter Audrey Caroline.

Cappy Hair

"Cappy hair" is a phrase that I use a lot. Cappy is my dog, a puggle. Cappy was an impulse buy and we had a rough beginning, but I stuck it out and now she is a lazy, semi-overweight, shedding dog. Her hair seems to be all over the house, despite my attempts to vacuum/lint roll. I've tried brushing her in the past, but I could never find a brush that worked.......until now.

I have become completely obsessed with the FURminator!


I now brush Cappy once a day and found that I can even use the tool on my couch. I was a little nervous about that at first, but no damage was done. I am astonished at the amount of hair that comes off of Cappy. I'm not going to lie, it is kind of pricey for a dog brush, but I would definitely recommend this to anyone with a cat or shedding dog.

By the way, I realize this is a random post.

Updates and an Unexpected Evening

Update #1- I can cook! Who knew? Certainly not me or my husband.

Update #2- Being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) is WAY harder than I expected, it is also a little bit lonely. I look forward to going to Target or the grocery store to have a little adult interaction. I'm still trying to decide if I will apply for a job.

Update #3- Making friends has been challenging. I have discovered this whole new world of pool moms. We have a pool at the apartment and it gives us something free to do during the day. Mackenzie is still pretty young and needs constant supervision (pool or no pool), so my interactions are somewhat limited with the other women. Maybe if I read this book I will have some luck.

Update #4- Nathan was in charge of picking out the apartment since I was 600 miles away and the only thing I asked for was that it be on the ground level. I did not want to be carrying the baby and all her crap up and down stairs. Well, we are on the ground floor......the floor you have to walk down stairs to get to. Hello? If you have to walk down, you're going to have to walk up! Oh well, we all learned a valuable lesson.


Update #5- Overall, the move went pretty well. On the first packing/moving day in Fort Wayne, I was greeted at the storage unit by three, large, tattoo covered gentlemen that I spent the next 7 hours with. One of them was on house arrest, I noticed his ankle bracelet. The next day seemed to go even slower, they had to inventory and put stickers on EVERYTHING before loading it onto the truck. There were only two guys that day and it felt like they took a break every 20 minutes. Blah, blah, blah, the stuff made it with only a few scratches.

Update #6- Mackenzie is very close to walking! She loves her toy from Matt Johnston & family that allows her to walk semi-independently. I'm not too wild about the song I hear 150 times a day, but what can you do?

As for our unexpected evening....

Last night I talked Nathan into going to one of the local parks. I had never been before and it turned out being a bust. I was bummed so he suggested going to get ice cream. We stumbled upon Historic Fredericksburg. It was adorable, the houses, the shops, the streets, everything made me smile. Don't you love finding places like that? We had some ice cream, walked around with Mackenzie and enjoyed our time together. It was great, just what we needed.

Thank You!

We are here! I have so much to update on, but before we can get to any of that I need to say thank you to just about everyone that may be reading this blog. Nathan and I are humbled by the love and support we were shown over the past 5 months. The kind words, encouraging emails and positive thoughts were more than we expected.


The picture above is from the last Muldoon gathering before we left Fort Wayne. The group consists of my mom, four aunts (Laurie, Tina, Joyce and Marlene), five cousins (Krista, Brandon, Jared, Autumn and Melissa) and Mackenzie. We ate too much food and had a great time, thanks guys!