Random Thoughts

I'm too tired to form a full blog post today, so I'll take you through a tour of my brain on a normal day and all the thoughts that run through it at any given moment...

Chocolate chip cookies - Very fun to make. Gives off a very yummy smell throughout your home. Very pleasing to eat. Too pleasing. Not very fun to have sitting around the house tempting me. All 5000 of them because I'm incapable of splitting a recipe. Never did quite master those fractions.

I'm almost at 11 weeks. Guess what has already reared it's ugly little head? I'm the not so proud owner of my first stretch mark. Yes, I'm using cocoa butter. Yes, my momma had them in all three pregnancies. Yes, I've come to terms with the fact that it's inevitable. Yes, when I first spotted it, I made Trey double check, then cried a little. Isn't it too early for those things??

We went to a social for Trey's unit Wednesday night. It was called the Red Leg Social. I'm still not sure why it's called that. I could google, but I'm thinking maybe one of you will already know and save me from googling something YET AGAIN FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME IN A DAY. I had a really good time there. The food left something to be desired (chick-fil-a afterwards to be exact) but it was great to sit with all the other spouses/significant others and chat. One girl has been sitting here with nothing to do this whole time and get this... lives in the same apartments as we do! Next week we have a cocktail party and I'm even more excited about that!

Dear John... tonight's the night! Going with said group of girls and I cannot wait! I bought our tickets yesterday bc I'm a little anal like that and was afraid it'd be sold out. Not everyone is going. It seems that the movie is a little controversial among the Army (Military) community. I do see why one would not want to watch it, but I can't help myself. I'm not saying I agree with what she does or that it won't be hard for me to watch. I fully expect to sob in an embarrassing sort of way. You know.. that cry that really shouldn't be done in public. I hope I still have friends afterwards. I'm just a sucker for a Nicholas Sparks movie!

Someone stumbled upon my blog from googling... ready for this... I can hardly contain myself... "redneck woman pee". LOL. I don't know what I'm more curious about - Mobile, Alabama - you have to tell me why you even googled that if you ever read this!! Or should I just be more concerned with why on earth that brought her to my blog??? Ohhh man... I've seen some good ones before, but that just takes the cake.

My SIL sounds like she is doing very well with little Addyson. She is such a good mommy and I really hope to be as calm and collected as she is when our time comes. She has this DVD which shows you the difference between your babies' cries and she says that has been such a great help. She's sending it to me as soon as she feels like she's gotten a good handle on it.. along with some maternity pants that her friend offered to give me.. YAAYYYY!

The whole maternity clothing thing has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm a little confused as to when I'm supposed to buy them and how much to buy. Don't you need different sizes throughout the whole pregnancy? I really can't wait until it gets warmer. I fully intend to live in dresses this summer! Finally for once in my life I'll be flaunting that belly instead of hiding it :)

Columbia, SC (my hometown) was "awarded"?? the title of the 13th drunkest city in America today. That really makes me laugh and shocks me not one bit.

Cayce (family dog) got her first BIG kill yesterday. Mum said she saw her in the drive way flinging a POSSUM around like it was one of her chew toys!! HA! Can you imagine this sweet thing doing that?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

No Place Like Home

Why oh why does time have to go by so quickly?? I had such a great time over the past 2 weeks, but it sure did feel like it only lasted 5 minutes! Needless to say we enjoyed every minute of our time back home with family and friends. I'll sum it up the best I can without making this a 10 page post.. it's a pretty daunting task coming back after being away for so long...

We left in the very weeee hours on Sat. the 19th. They didn't let us leave at midnight after all, but could sign out at 5. So that's exactly what we did and drove straight through.. and didn't get home until a little after midnight. Will NEVER do that again no matter how anxious I am. It's a wonder I didn't throw myself out of the car and out onto the highway. But the welcome of my family after they stayed up waiting for us - made it MORE than worth it.

We got up verrry late Sunday morning and started preparations for the 1:00 Patriots game. Our friends Brandon and Emily came over to watch with us. We feasted on my mum's own little rendition of one of Olive Garden's soups (the one with the crumbled sausage and potatoes.. I forget the name) and some sloppy joes.

My dad, Brandon, and Trey. And of course Cayce hanging out with the boysThe next couple of days went by in a big *wonderful* blur. Monday was a full day with my SIL. We did some shopping, eating, pampering, and I went with her to one of her now weekly doctors appointments until the baby is due. Monday night was dinner at Za's with some of my favorite girls from work. It was great catching up with them. Tuesday, I had lunch with my old bosses from work which held plenty of laughs. They are a mess.. I don't really know what else to say about them! Trey's grandfather came in so he spent the day with him and his dad. Tuesday night we met with our good good friends Chris and Julianne. It was the first time I got to meet Mr. Mason, they're alllmost 3 month old little boy!There he is! This is NOT mama, but it's the only picture I snapped of him. I really didn't take too many pictures. Was too busy soaking up every minute!

Wednesday I saw everyone at my old office for lunch (see a theme here? food?) then went home to bake cookies with mum all day. We did pretty dern good for ourselves and I must say I think I'm the best cookies baking assistant there ever was. I don't know how she manages without me ;) Christmas Eve was spent with Trey's family. A nice laid back day and I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves: My very pregnant SIL and MIL

Trey with his crazy grandfather.

We spent Christmas Day at my parents house. We got up early, opened presents (I'm soo happy that Santa thought I was a good enough girl to give me our single cup coffee maker.. it's already been put to great use), and very unhealthy egg sandwiches that may or may not have been cooked in bacon grease :\ and played lots of Wii darts and shuffleboard. I'll just say my dad and I are a power house and are an unbeatable team. I didn't take many pictures at all...

Cayce sniffs out her gift every year!

I am about picture uploaded out so I think I'll save the rest for tomorrow. Plus, if I sit around in my PJ's while Trey is being over-productive, I'll start to feel really bad.

I've been reading through every one's posts all this time and it sounds like everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! I'll get back to commenting soon. I will say we had a very calm, great New Years Eve. I'm very excited for what this new year has in store for us!!

I Have Butterflies

~ but I can't tell you why just yet ~ I will share with the world later this week probably, but it just wouldn't be right to share now. *NO I'M NOT PREGNANT* But I am very excited about something. I want to say more... I'll switch subjects now...

As per usual, I forgot to take my camera anywhere with me while the fam was down. I have two pics from their phones that they sent me.. here you go:

This is me and my cousin Kim on Thursday. I'm not telling you what meal this is with.

Me and Kate Friday night at Icy's. She's the one coming down here to USC in the fall and is so excited. I'm extremely proud of this chickie. Not many people have the guts to move hundreds of miles away from home to start college. She's pumped. I can't wait to see what's in store for her in the future ~ I know she'll be amazing. We were so close when we were younger and I hated moving away from her when I did (at age 13). I can't even get into how much it breaks my heart to know that I'll be moving away from her again not long after she comes down here... we'll save that for another day (for a much much more depressing post). Basically, I love these people.

My parents are leaving Wednesday night for San Antonio to see my brother Charlie graduate Basic Training. I know I haven't talked about that much on here, but I can't believe he is already done with that. I talked to him on the phone over the weekend and I can definitely see a difference in him. Just in the way he talks. He used to mumble so badly that you could barely understand what he was saying. Now you can just hear the confidence radiating in his voice. I was hoping that would happen. I can't even express how proud I am of him and I really really really really wish I could be there to see him graduate. Between my dad and my youngest brother, I know there will be about 10,091 pictures so I'll be sure to post a few.

While they are gone, I'll be staying at their house to take care of Cayce. She hurt her leg Friday morning and is on pain medicine and anti-inflammatories. They vet said that she tore a tendon in her knee. She is so pathetic hobbling around on three legs, it makes me so sad to look at her. Hopefully this will heal on it's on, but they do have to take her back in two weeks to see if she'll need surgery or not. They also realized when they were at the vet that she has lost 6 lbs in 3 months. Not good :( I guess they'll be keeping an eye out on that as well.

There's a pic of our pretty girl sitting on my parents back deck. Just look at that presh face. Awwww.. I'm looking forward to spending some QT with her for 5 nights :)

Something to not put a smiley face next to: I spent $459 on my car today for a new timing belt and a water pump. Yeah. And when it rains it pours... that's after spending $200 to fix my AC and another $200 for a deposit on my yet-to-be-named dog. :/ (that's a mad face in case you couldn't tell)

Finally a free minute

And UNC just lost their bowl game. Boo. I won't go any further into that..

Trey and I had a great Christmas this year. But is it just me, or did it go way too fast. I spent the majority of the day packing away all of our decorations. It felt like I just put them up! I remember thinking last year that I was almost thankful to be putting them away, but not so much this year. Although it is nice to remember that my living room is all that much bigger than it's looked like during the past month! There's a plus!

First we had Christmas Eve with Trey's family. We had dinner (a roast, potatoes, salad.. i'm pretty sure there was a veggie, but I don't remember). We sat around watching the Hawaii bowl game, then waited for his sister to get off of work to exchange gifts. With his family, everyone picks names and only buy for that person... which is nice on the wallet. My MIL had my name. I got pretty good gifts. My favorite though was this:

So thoughtful of her! Especially since they are not such big fans. (??!? I know right! Crazy!) We didn't get back to our house until around midnight.

The next morning we got up pretty early and had breakfast together. We made (read: mostly I made) eggs, turkey bacon, sausage, and biscuits. All hubs picks. That was basically my present to him. We didn't exchange gifts at all. (Unless you count buying a house and a 52" flat screen TV during the year) We just don't have much cash flow coming in and would rather buy for our family than for eachother. We got to my parents house around 10:30 and about 1/2 the living room was covered in presents. Nice job of "not having a big Christmas mum"! I don't think that she can help herself! Cayce was there to greet us at the door.. so excitedley:

With her pretty Christmas collar on! She loves it! What a pretty baby!!

Santa was very very good to us over there! Some of my favorites were.. Patriots flag to hang outside (that was actually from my brother) a toaster oven, George Foreman grill, a niiccee jacket..one for Trey and I each). And my other brother, Steven, got us some decorations to put outside for next year. I don't think he was quite satisfied with our decor when he came over ;) Santa brought the whole family a Wii!!! We had so much fun with that all day. We couldn't get enough. (until the Celtics game came on of course) Yall.. my dad even liked it! That says a lot.. he doesn't play games!

Oh I almost forgot. My friend Ashleigh got me a gorgeous ring from her jewelery (sp) party she had last month:

LOVE IT!!! We joked later that we felt like we got engaged bc I told her I couldn't stop staring at it. Teehee.. No? Not funny? It was at the moment. Not so much now. Oh well...

So there you have it. Tonight we're going to have dinner and possibly a few drinks with two other couples we're very close with. Trey and the two other guys have been friends since 9th grade. Just a bonus that us girls get along so well! Back to work Monday :( *Oh yes, back to a normal work week.. for now*