What what what

I'm frustrated with my current class. As I said before, with that start of the paper I had to do... the professor said to use our adult development book as a reference on that page, but the TA said if we didn't have to use it, then there was no need for it on the page. Uh... what in the world? One says one, and the other says no. The TA answered me AFTER the assignment was due, so I submitted it with what I had, with a reference page about my textbook. At this point, I'm doing what I can to pass this class, and work myself into the program at Colorado Christian University. This is another reason I'm feeling Ashford isn't for me. I feel the teaching isn't at the point I'd like and I don't feel like it's taking me in the right direction. I need to find our taxes from last year, though... I need to fill out a FAFSA since the MyCaa program was halted. I'm almost positive I can get a Pell grant, though. I really don't want anymore student loans. We'll see, though. If not, I'll wait until the fall and be able to use the new FAFSA, I think.


Brendon and I have decided to full TTC, but it's going to be a work in progress working around his schedule. And we've talked about what happens when he deploys, for him not to come home for the birth(that's if we get pregnant right away) at the beginning of the deployment. We'll be trying to have a HBAC/VBAC... preferably a home birth after cesarean. I've done a lot of research and I know it's the way I want to go. Brendon is fine with it, he even watched The Business of Being Born. I don't want another c-section. Even if I can't get a home birth, a vaginal delivery would be fine for me. I want that experience. If we don't have a home birth, I'll probably be doing Hypnobirthing, or using the Bradley Method.

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A Little About Me

I figure it's best if I give a more in depth description of myself to my readers, or just those just passing by.

Hi! I'm Kena. I'm 22 years old and currently reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was born and raised in Georgia, so living out here is a definite change for me. I have had a lot to deal with in my life as a teenager, and I look at those and think of them as challenges and help me become who I am today. I went to one high school, even was in marching band/symphonic band all 4 years. My senior year, I transferred after dealing with ex boyfriend stalkings. I graduated high school from West Laurens High School in May 2006. I didn't immediately go off to college, instead, I worked for a few months. I started dating my husband at the beginning of September 2006. He shipped off to basic on Halloween. We wrote continuously to each other. I enjoy fishing, camping, hiking, playing video games, crocheting, reading, making graphics, and other things.

(Sorry for the emo ness of the picture, it was taken during R&R of the last deployment when we were dropping him off to go back)


I married the love of my life, Brendon, December 28, 2006... he was on Christmas exodus during basic training. He was assigned to his first duty station, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where I joined him three weeks after he signed in. We lived off post in Oak Grove for a few months before moving on post. We lived on post for the remainder of our time at Campbell. 2007 - 2009. We went through our first deployment March 2008 - March 2009. I was so thrilled to have him home!

In May 2007, we found our we were expecting a little baby January 22, 2008! I didn't really have much of a difficult pregnancy until the last month. After going through numerous midwives/doctors and so many different opinions and diagnoses, Braden Franklin Simmons was born January 12, 2008 at 10:45pm, via C-section. He was going to be turned by my doctor on January 4th, but she said I didn't have enough fluid, and the next day said I did, and then she went on bed rest, sending me to another doctor, who I met the day before delivery. Scary. His middle name is a family name, mostly named after my grandpa, who passed away a month before he was born. It was difficult for me to deal with his death. Braden is the most amazing person I've ever seen in my life. I love him with all my heart, and every day is a new journey with him.

I could never imagine loving anyone as much as I love him. Brendon was deployed majority of his first year of life. He left when he was 2 months old and returned when he was 14 months old. It's very heart wrenching trying to tell your kids what's going on with daddy, even if they can't understand as a young age. He's changed so much since he's been born and we can't picture him as anything else.

We PCS'd to Fort Carson this past summer and we love it. Though, Brendon trains a lot more than previously, we enjoy having him home and being around. We are getting ready for another deployment, and I'm not looking forward to that.

So there you have it. Long and boring, I guess.

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KILL MEEEEE!!!

I'm so exhausted. I haven't been this tired since Braden was a newborn, and that was 2 years ago. Brendon's in the field, as I've said a million times before. I wish he was home. Braden got up at 3 am. YES, 3 EFFIN AM IN THE MORNING. I tried not to fall asleep, and I did and he ended up watching tv and then came in the room, and cuddled up to me in the bed. I feel horrible for falling asleep.

I kept trying to figure out all day why he was so cranky, come to find out... he has three more teeth coming in. Two on the top and one on the bottom. It's like wow. They're all coming in all at once now. When they are come fully in, he will have a total of 14 teeth. WOW. I remember when he got the first one at 14 months.


The snow finally tapered off, and I'm thrilled. We didn't get as much as most places. Can you believe Wolf Creek Pass got 43 inches of snow over the weekend? Amazing to me. There's a storm system next weekend that is supposed to be more potent. And here we are coming towards Spring when we are supposed to get the bigger snow storms. Not looking forward to it. I think Brendon will need to show me how to light the logs for the fireplace.

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Great Balls of Fire!

I don't even mean that in the sexual sense, either. Ha. Brendon got to come home for the day Saturday. Of course, had to drive in the snow and take him back to work. I won't see him until a week from now. Supposedly, he gets the whole weekend off, but it is the Army we're talking about. When do they ever do things the way it says?

 Yesterday something amazing happened. Braden actually used the bathroom all by himself. Such a proud mama moment for me. I cheered, clapped, and all that. And yes, that's the face that was made in mid pee. Brendon wouldn't wake up since he was exhausted from the training, so I wasn't too terribly upset. I hope when we get to see him again he won't be so dragged out, but I'm sure he will be.I think Braden wants a brother or sister around. He keeps pointing to me and saying baby. And then points at me and says baby, mine. I know he'd made a great big brother. I think we'll try for the next few months, but we'll see how that goes. I don't know, we've been semi trying for a while, and it hasn't worked. I think my weight has something to do with it. So that's why tonight, I started working out. It felt good to get down and work with Bob on the dvd.


I'd also like mother nature to stop being so angry.... and stop making it snow. It's effing freezing here in Colorado and has been snowing for DAYS now.

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Good news!

In good news, I just got a e-mail from CCU and they have provisionally accepted me. Now I just have to somehow get a copy of my high school diploma to them. I really hope I can get more out of this than I am with Ashford.

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Egos are my friends

I'm supposed to be getting a call from back the enrollment counselor from CCU today. He did say Friday... it's Friday isn't it? I'm lost with my days. I get to pick Brendon up at work tonight, most likely late when Braden's asleep. I'll be glad to see him, but having to wake up a 2 year and driving on the icy roads isn't fun. Maybe he can get someone to bring him home, but we'll see. This training is so weird to us. He didn't train this much at Campbell, and being here and not seeing him as much is weird to us. Pretty much until after April, it's constant training it seems like. I won't see him at all in April. May is going to be a slow month since they'll be shipping the stuff off to Afghanistan. I can't believe it's been almost a year since he's been home(March 3rd). And we're talking about another. Yeah, I know, it's the Army, married into it and all that. I was 19 and naive. Brendon was still in basic when we got married, so deployment was not even on my mind. Neither was having a child, but here we are 2 years later. Would I change anything? No. Do I have to like it? Definitely not. I'm just trying to think about how this is going to impact Braden when daddy leaves this summer. I'm pretty much going to have to hog tie him to me, otherwise he's going to chase Brendon onto that bus.


I was also thinking of cooking some chicken tacos tonight for dinner. Sounds good. I did my work for the week, minus four discussion post replies, but that won't even take more than 20 minutes to do tonight when Braden goes down for the night. I feel stupid though. We aren't writing a whole paper, not yet. We were only required to write the title page, outline, and a reference/works cited page. But what's to cite? There isn't any content to cite. I noticed I wasn't the only one having that problem, and confused. It was asked to the professor, and he said ask the TA. So she went to the TA discussion area and asked, and she hasn't replied, and the professor did. Um, you couldn't answer this before? He said to quote our textbook, but for what? We didn't quote or use anything out of it. It's just a psychology text, not a writing text. It's not due until Monday, and I'm pretty much done minus the resource page, I'm waiting for a reply from the TA.

I just read this article, and it's pretty messed up. :(

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Take The Plunge

I have been talking to a enrollment counselor with CCU. It's set up in a better way than Ashford, and I feel I would get a better chance of getting my meteorology degree than transferring environmental science credits. According to Mississippi State's transfer credits website, only three of my credits would transfer with the track I am on with Ashford. Why do I have to make things complicated? I would still finish out my classes and I could start in May with CCU. I will have taken English Comp I and English Comp II by the time I am done before May. I'm just going to take it day by day. With Ashford, I have to hardest time getting a hold of my academic counselor. Never e-mails or calls back, and trust me, I do it constantly if I have a question.

I just want to get on the ball and get my meteorology career going. A start though, is when the summer rolls around, I plan on doing some storm chasing out here in Colorado. Nothing like Reed does on Storm Chasers, going that close to a storm, but close enough. You can ask my mom and anyone who I grew up with, I've never been wrong about a storm and it comes like a 6th sense to me. Hell, I've wanted to have a meteorology career since I was 6 years old. No lie. My mom inspired me. It was 1993 in Georgia, and we were pretty poor, so we didn't have a tv. I asked my mom what snow was since the teacher made a mention of it. I asked why we never see it. She didn't know what to say. I asked her to make it snow. She said ok and snapped her fingers. The next morning? Wouldn't you believe we woke up to the Blizzard of 93 or the actual Storm of the Century. It was so WHITE and cold outside. We weren't prepared so we had to use socks as gloves. It was horrid, but it did make me question... why did this happen? Why does anything weather related happen? Why do tornadoes do some damage or no damage to a mass destruction to a town? Questions to ponder... and for a 6 year old, it made me extremely curious.

I apologize for the biggest nerd post in the world. I leave you with a video, talking about it...

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