Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tyler William Korsmo's Arrival

Here is a quick update to the new little guy. We're so proud of our little man, and can't wait A couple days to go...


Just a quick nap before the big pushing. Quick dilation and a knot in the umbilical chord helped speed up the process. Great work Tara!

Before:



After:

Here he is...8-minutes old and seeminly pretty chill thus far. The doctors ran a bunch of tests and they say that he is "gifted"... he is in the top 99% in terms of athletic ability, ingenuity, good looks, charm, 'manliness', and 12 other catagories. What lucky parents. The new Family (minus Georgia)

Chicken legs? What you talking bout fool?


What a fun little guy. If I didn't say earlier...6lb 3oz, 19" long, born 29 Sep 08 at 4:23pm.

Hitching a ride.




Saturday, September 27, 2008

38 Weeks

Hopefully this will be the last post with my pregnant belly! I officially am 1 week out from my due date and definately ready! Other than some inevitable nerves for the delivery; we are pumped to meet the lil' guy. Doc still thinks I won't go past October 6, so it could be sometime this week but it's all up to him and the big Guy upstairs! I have been having some intense contractions and low back pain in the last week but they are not regular enough at this point for me to go in. We have his temporary "nursery" ready to go, and house half packed for the big move early November. We are excited to have visitors once Tyler arrives and are awaiting Andy's A-10 graduation ceremony on the 10th...hopefully I won't be in the hospital during that time!! On a side note...I chopped my hair again! Was at Target and saw a Cost Cutters across the street...without any tought, 6 inches were gone :)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Korea & Germany!

So, many of you may already know but we got our assignment! We have known for a while that Andy and his entire A-10 class was going to be sent on a 1 year remote deployment to South Korea. We we went back and forth on what to do with Tyler, Georgia, and myself for the year. It is possible to bring family and while some do it; others do not. There are many reasons why we have chosen to stay back in the states; such as not having primary medical care for Tyler and myself. Other concerns were risking to find a fully furnished apartment off base as many airmen have occupied these right outside of the gate due to on base construction. We would only be allowed to bring 600 pounds of our total household goods for our entire family! Not much allowed for standard necessities!! With intense work hours; we would prefer to have a family and friend support structure with a new baby. Finally, we have prayed and talked intensely about this and feel that this is where God is leading us. We have not closed the door on moving over if He choses to guide us in that direction at any point this next year. For now; we feel an incredible peace about this decision and are excited for many opportunities to see each other. (If you look at the map below; Andy will be stationed an hour outside of the capital city Seoul on the northern part. The base is called Osan AFB...http://www.osan.af.mil).
We will be leaving Arizona early to mid November and heading to Sacramento, CA to stay with Andy's parents. Andy will leave first week of December for Korea and I will be living with them for a few months until I can make my first trip out to see him in March. Since they live so close to Travis AFB, I am able to fly with Tyler for free, Space available, on their military aircraft whenever I want! We are planning to go three months apart and 1 month on as I am able to visit Korea for 30 days at a time. Sometime in April I will be heading with the Honda and trailer to live with my friend Eve at Columbus AFB in Mississippi for the remainder of the year. I will continue to fly up to CA and wait for space A hops to visit...or maybe we will meet in Hawaii!!! (yes please :)) I am hoping to take advantage of this time to see my parents in Indiana and visit friends & family in MN as well. With all that said, we ask for your prayers and support during our upcoming transition and for continual guidance from God...we are excited to see what he has in store for us! That brings me to my next topic....GERMANY!
As of a few weeks ago, we received our "follow-on" assignment; meaning where we will be stationed for the 3 years after Andy's Korea tour. Andy called me on a Friday at about 5:30 saying that the "drop" came down. This basically means that out of the A-10 bases to select from (Tucson, AZ, Valdosta, GA, & Spangdahlem, Germany) they tell you how many openings are at each location. Now mind you, it has been our dream to live in Germany for a while now. Typically you are given your top pick based on how you ranked in your training class...not this time! They rolled dice! Did you read that??? They rolled dice for their assignement!!! I couldn't believe it. Andy and one other guy rolled a 6 for the two spots available; which means they got it! We will move there sometime next December ('09) or January ('10) once Andy comes back from Korea. We are super excited for this amazing opportunity to explore Europe and to eat some good, authentic Brautwurst :) Being 100% german; I will be in heaven! (looking at the map you will see "Rhine Valley" which is in between Frankfurt to the east and the country Luxembourg to the west. This is the area we will be living. The base is called Spangdahlem AFB...http://www.spangdahlem.af.mil.. in the quaint village of Spangdahlem, Germany). If you feel like speaking Deutsch; come and visit!!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Shower Time!

This past Sunday, my dear friend Haley hosted a beautiful shower at her home. My friend Eve (who sent out the invites) coordinated with her to make this a "mail shower" where you mail the gifts to Haley's home since most people are out of state. Anywho, Eve and my friend Rebecca did an excellent job making the invitations and the "advice" cards that were sent to many of you...I really enjoyed reading them and need all the advice I can get :) Haley put a ton of work into the cute clothesline decorations and wonderful spread of food-you rock!! It has been such a blessing getting to know her during my time here in Tucson and I know our pups Georgia and Polly appreciate our friendship too...means more playdates for them! In addition, my Minnesota friends Lacey and Ann coordinated the "diaper bag game" by mailing a diaper bag filled with goodies that we had to guess the price of. It was a wonderful surprise and Ann if you are reading this...I know the Reeses were your idea :) Love them!! To all you ladies: Thank you so much for throwing me this shower. I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends like you who are a Godly example of support and love during such a new and exciting time for us...thanks!!!! Haley and I with the oh so yummy food we are about to devour!!
"Tyler William Korsmo" on the yellow cake with choc frosting...my fave...thanks Haley :)
The clothesline of belly progression photos...what a cute idea!!
Opening gifts with a rather weird smile on my face :)
Ahhh...yes....Butt Paste!

Tyler will be so cute in his "My First Thanksgiving" ensemble sent from family in Minnesota :)
Reading cards (and still don't know what's up with the weird expressions on my face)
MY STROLLER!!! Thanks to my MN family :)
The group of gals at the shower...Andy's mom, sister, Aunt, and niece, along with some spouses from Andy's training class. Thanks for coming out everyone!! And to all of you who are reading this from out of state: thank you for showering us with gifts from afar (isn't that in the Bible somewhere??) Although you may not be the 3 Wise Men; we appreciate all the efforts put into mailing these wonderful gifts and cannot say thank you enough...our hearts are so full :)
At home after the shower to say hi to Andy
Andy attempting to figure out the baby sling...I told him he was close :)
Great picture of Andy & mom in the squadron for a quick tour and lesson on a mock A-10 cockpit...looks like she could be the next fighter pilot in the family :)

Friday, September 12, 2008

My Hubby, 36 weeks, & Alan Jackson

So here is my wonderful husband with a boquet of roses for me...no reason...just because :) The longer I am married to this man (almost 5 years!); the more I love him. He continues to affirm me as his wife, values family, makes me laugh, works hard at being a great pilot, puts God above all else, will make an incredible daddy, and loves me unconditionally. I could keep going; but will leave it at that for now :) God has blessed our marriage in many ways and I am confident that we will continue to laugh together even when our hearing aids stop working :) I love this man!!

Here we are at a recent University of Arizona Football game.
9 MONTHS!!! (Only 3 weeks left...crazy!!)
Last night we hit up the Alan Jackson concert. We purchased really great tickets for the show that was originally scheduled for this past May and re-scheduled for September 11th. Needless to say we have been anticipating this show for several months now! Andy has been busy at work so we decided it would be no big deal to miss the opening act which was to start at 7:30. We left our house at 7:40 and arrived at 8:15 to find out that there was no opening act and Alan ended his concert at 8:40. Sooo, our tickets purchased us 4 songs at his concert for a total of 20 minutes! We were a lil frustrated of course; but can't stay mad at him for long...he is our favorite :)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Baby Showers

In the last week, Andy and I have been so very blessed by people that have taken the time to shower us with gifts and support of our little Tyler. On Labor Day, I had the privelage to meet 2 of Andy's Aunts that live up in Washington. They came to visit for a sister weekend with "Aunt Bunny" (as Andy calls her) who lives in Tucson; and took the afternoon for a meet n' greet/shower. It was fun to have 9 Korsmos (including Tyler) all together for the afternoon. I had a great time and was so blessed by their generous spirits. Thank you!!!From left: Cousin Joanne, Aunt Elaine, Aunt Bunny, sister Pam, us...Pam's daughter Meg, and Aunt Sigrid


Strolling back from a dip in the pool where Aunt Bunny lives :)
Second, I was thrown a surprise shower from my co-workers at the Child Development Center last Friday. They had the breakroom all decorated and people poured in during our nap time at the center. I was shocked because I had only been working there for 3 months and was still getting to know everyone. Everyone was so generous and I am grateful for the short time I have spent there. Here is a lovely picture of the "oh so flattering" smock we get to wear. The larger I get; the more I resemble a triangle in it...hmmm not good.
With Amanda; a wonderful Christian friend here who I have felt much support from...thank you!
Just a few of the many people I work with...or at least until this Friday...time flies!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Over Labor Day weekend we drove 4 hours to Puerto Penasco or "Rocky Point", Mexico. This tourist town is located on the upper curve of the Sea of Cortez. We were anticipating a very relaxing weekend; but came out with much the opposite. A friend of mine told me she was excited to hear what story we would have as it seems like we always come out of a trip with a good laugh..well we got one!
We camped on the beach the first night. Beautiful warm ocean water and waves crashing to soothe us to sleep....yep...not quite. First we didn't realize how deep the sand was and had to get towed out from the guy next to us. Turns out we were the first of 5 people to get stuck that night!
We had to move our tent back because our "next door neighbors" had a large speaker with our favorite music: TEJANO!! For any of our friends that spent some time with us in Del Rio...you know what I'm talking about :) With high humidity on the water it was pretty difficult to fall asleep easily. Thankfully we had help!
It was 10pm and a rather large truck decided to drive close to the tide that was rolling in. Andy walked over to tell him the sand gets deeper and that he would get stuck. He didn't listen. After an hour of 8 people pushing and his engine nearly overheating...he finally got out. We turned the AC on in the car to cool off and went to sleep. An hour later we had a new neighbor with a trailer who decided to take their 4 ATV's out for a spin at midnight. During this time, another vehicle got stuck which added to the quiet soothing noise of the ATV's for a sleep-filled evening :) After waking up I couldn't fall back asleep....so I slept in the backseat of the car while Andy had the tent. Shortly after a Hummer pulled up next to us maybe 20ft away with his buddy on the other side....both blaring TEJANO from the cars....we were thrilled!!! With everyone screaming in a drunken stooper, they didn't quite realize that their Tahoe was nearly swept up by the tide as it was stuck with it's back bumper 5ft from the waves and the front facing an uphill climb out of the sand. Being the good Christians we are; we simply grabbed a bag of MnM's, sat on our chairs, and watched in amusement as their giggling quickly turned to crying. Oh...I can't forget that we turned up our radio playing good ol' country boy Alan Jackson music as if to send the message that we weren't digging the "Mexican Polka" style music. Thankfully for them and their Tahoe, an F450 got them out before water rose to the tires. By this time the sun was rising....
So we went in the water :)

Looking back during low tide at the beach we camped on.
The mountain range that gives Puerto Penasco the name: Rocky Point


The second night was spent at a beautiful hotel. What we didn't know is that MTV spring break was there taping on location (not really; but it seemed like it). We spent the afternoon by the pool with many high schoolers and college students on break. The same 20 rap songs repeated from 11am to 10:30pm at night. We were hoping to get to bed early as we only had 2 hours total the night before but the base was too extreme...so we got some early dinner, Thrifty ice cream, and kept the TV volume on high until the walls stopped shaking.



The same view of high tide (above) and low tide (below) from our balcony just in a matter of hours.



Andy had a great ride with an ATV on the sand dunes the day before. I couldn't go so the next day we rented this instead. I think we'll trade in our Honda :)
Well, needless to say we headed for home a bit early. All in all it was a great weekend; we were just awake for too much of it! For anyone in the Tucson area; I would definately recommend visiting Rocky Point. The water is increadibly warm; beaches are nice, and hotels are beautiful. Just avoid camping on the beach during a party weekend...that is...unless you love TEJANO :)