Week in Review

I'm sitting here with a bit of free time since Andrew is sleeping on Trey's chest (which never fails to make my heart patter) and my camera battery died on me. I was attempting to erase all the pics from the past year that I don't plan to print out.. the memory card is almost full. I don't think I've ever done that before. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the 1 thousand million pictures I've taken over the past three months. I felt the deep need to blog, but after about a half hour went by without a decent subject popping in to my head, I figured I'd just come on here and ramble. That seems to be the norm lately.

So let's see..

This week flew by in my eyes. I did good keeping us busy.. mostly just with errands spread out over the week with bits of fun here and there.

Monday we went grocery shopping at Target and ran into my friend Sheila. I got to meet her little Andrew for the first time! He is 6 weeks old. Nothing too exciting there.. just a fun day at Target.. Andrew's favorite place. Promise.

One of my favorite pics to date ~ starting to look more like mama ~

We had our first play date with Andrew's friend Zoey on Tuesday. I met her mommy, Michelle, at the mall but I promise it was a play date for them, not us :) Zoey and Andrew were born within a few hours of each other at the same hospital. We went through Centering together and then ended up being in labor together as well. I'd say there is a bit of a bond there, don't you? We have another play date lined up for next week... Zoey wants Andrew to come over and play in her princess room. We won't tell daddy.

Thursday, we went to the Commissary and dropped by to see the Stitchers girls while we were on post. Andrew was a doll and sat and smiled at all the ladies. Flirt. That night we went to the HHB Christmas party and Andrew got to meet Santa for the first time. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :) One thing I can say is that he is such an easy little boy. He's so compliant and I hope that lasts. It was past his bedtime and he wasn't mad at us at all for keeping him out. Didn't fuss at all and was just taking everything in.

Friday, for the most part, I went on strike from any cleaning or errands. I wanted to soak up as much time getting all of those giggles and smiles in. I have to remember to take days like that. Andrew is not going to remember how clean his house was growing up. I know that is not what is important in the long run. I mean, I'm not going to let the roaches and flies come in, but it's okay to let the dirty dishes sit for a bit. I want my son to remember his mama taking the time to get on the floor and play and laugh with him!
He went to bed around 6:45 that night. Just in time for Trey and I to watch the Friday night movie on NBC together. I guess Family Movie Night is coming back (remember that growing up?) and they showed A Walk in My Shoes. Such a great feel good, remember what life is all about movie. I loved it! Hopefully, they keep up the good movies.

This has been a lazy morning so far, enjoying our coffee and some College Gameday! Carolina is playing in the SEC Championship game today, and I can't speak for Trey, but I sure am excited! I'd love to win the game and be champions of the SEC, but if we win there won't be an SEC team in the National Title game, which there should always be in my opinion! We shall seeee. I know if we win, it's going to be a crazy night in Columbia!

Tomorrow we are heading up towards Las Crueces, New Mexico to head to a Pistachio and Wine Farm. More on that later. Off to enjoy the weekend! Sorry for the semi-boring post... that's all I have in me :)

I'm still alive!

I've just been super, super  busy. And sick :( 

We've had some pretty crappy germs running through our household. Starting with my husband, who oh so lovingly passed it on to me. You know.. the congestion, sneezing, coughing, headache (I feel like a Dayquil commercial), and I, unfortunately, passed it on to our sweet boy who now has congestion and diarrhea. We're both miserable because of it.



Our first family photo... at a wine festival



Anywho... what's been going on in my world? Well I just mentioned most of it, but we had a WONDERFUL weekend! The Storey's (two of our best friends from back home) flew out to visit us! I can't tell you how much that meant to us and how happy it made the both of us. It's so hard being away from family and friends. For those two blissful days, it didn't feel like we were so far away. Thank you Matthew and Ashleigh! I'm so happy that they got to meet Andrew.. Ashleigh got lots of practice and is going to be a fantastic mum one day! Annd the two extra pairs of hands? I loved it!! We watched lots of football on Saturday (y'all.. nothing gets in the way of Football Saturday). Sunday we took them to Taco Cabana (it's the Norton mission to make sure everyone on the planet eats here) and drove out to New Mexico to check on the La Vina Wine Fest. We had a great time and this little mama got a little tipsy over a few samples of wine.. not gonna lie! It was hard to send them back home the next morning and I almost kidnapped them and made them stay forever... lucky they have a sweet pup to go home to!



Ashleigh and I - October 2010



Monday night I watched the Pats.. FINALLY!! They scared me in the first half but came back swinging in the 2nd. That's my boys! I hear now that Moss is leaving to the Vikings. We'll do just fine without him is what I say...

And this week I've just been taking care of a sad, sick baby. Thanks, girls, for your napping advise! I found something that works and have been getting in a nap a day. I curl up with him on the couch when he falls asleep and sleep with him on my chest! I know I'll have to stop doing this with him in the next few weeks so I don't start any bad habits, but for now, I'm cherishing it. It's the sweetest thing to feel his baby breath on my neck and feel his little fingers wrapping around my arm to curling on my chest. I know that I will miss these little moments!

I'm really looking forward to .. ahhh... 4pm or so today. Hubby will be off and he is coming home to relieve me! That's right.. I get some ME time :) I'm heading off to find some clothes that actually fit me!! I'm in this horrible in between stage where I'm nowhere close to fitting in my pre-pregnancy clothes, but the maternity stuff doesn't quite work anymore either. Any suggestions?

And thank you God, it's a 4-day weekend! I was talking to my cousin last night and she mentioned that she had a long weekend, but wasn't sure why. So thank you Christopher Columbus. Thank you for getting my husband a 4-day :) We'll be enjoying some downtime (watching the Carolina-Bama game.. yessss I'm going for Bama! Don't call me a traitor.. I can't help it) and each other's company.



Look at my little man looking fly in his Bama jersey (courtesy of the Storey's)



Tomorrow.. I put up my fall decor. Can't wait. Time to start lighting that Autumn Leaves candle!!

Visitors

Yaayyy for Friday!!!

Even though I'm not working, I'm still loving me some Fridays! That means Daddy comes home and gets to stay with us for 2 days.. woohoo! And in about an hour and 1/2 Andrew's other set of Grandparents will be here to meet him along with his Great-Grandfather. My in-laws will be here until Wednesday and I'm looking forward to spending some time with them and having them get to know their grandson! Not to mention all those other hands that are going to be dying to hold him and give me a break now and then :)

We have plans to spend lots of time in front of the tube tomorrow watching football. Carolina won't be showing here, but I'll be sure to root them on against Furman... Andrew will be too in his Gamecock onsie! But we will make sure to watch the Bama game and Tennessee game (my father-in-law is a huge TN fan). Sunday we hope to make it on post and check out Oktoberfest for a bit. (Here's to my first experience pumping in the back seat of my car under my breast feeding cover.. I'm sure that'll be a blog post in and of itself). We have an appointment to get our pictures done on Monday (mainly for the boys... 4 generations together!). And I'm sure some shopping trips to Cosco and the outlet malls plus some eating out will be happening. I'm tired just from typing all of this out!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend... now for the pic of the day :)

Friday Randomness

Still not much going on around here, but I figure I better post somewhat regularly so you don't think I'm in labor or anything!

Remember earlier in the week where I talked about still not being seen on a weekly basis or even having an internal exam? I almost gave up after leaving numerous messages for my nurse and calling straight to L&D to see if my nurse was just confused. L&D told me it was normal - I'm not seeing someone regularly or having the internal because I'm part of the Centering group (which I will never do again) and more and more they don't like to do internals since it could cause early labor and there's no real benefit to know if I've started to dialate. I get that.. I really do. But... 1: I'm kind of okay with going into labor at any point now. 2: They clearly don't know me very well. I like to be prepared. So when my nurse FINALLY called me back yesterday (4 day turnaround? Not very acceptable) and said I could come in Monday morning for sick call and ask for a certain nurse and will be given an exam.. I've decided to jump on that I think. I just need to know what's going on.

I finally got around to getting a breast pump. It came with an instructional DVD and we watched it the other night. Ha.. freaky! That'll take some getting used to! The most beneficial thing I got out of the DVD was the "words of encouragement" section. I'm more determined that this IS GOING TO WORK now more than ever. I really want to be able to breastfeed and if it comes down to calling a lactation consultant to help, than I will.. but one way or another.. it's going to happen. Take that Andrew ;)


I'm so glad it's the weekend. Friday nights are my favorite. Trey comes home fairly early (most of the time) and we have the whole weekend ahead of us. No work. No meetings. Just hanging out together. We have a goodbye party to go to tonight for some friends that are leaving to go to Colorado. Tomorrow we'll get some work done on our cars -no fun- and buy just two more things I need for the babe. Other than that, we have no real plans!

Jaci over at Me and My SoldierMan is having an awesomely exciting (you like that Jaci?) Scentsy giveaway, so go on over and check that out! I didn't want to mention it, because I want to win it very badly, but she needs at least 30 bloggers to sign up, so what are you waiting for? Annnd.. she found out yesterday that as soon as her hubby is done with BOLC and Ranger school that they are heading here to Fort Bliss! So excited to be reunited with her :) We met when Trey and I were stationed at Ft. Sill and they were still living in Oklahoma!

Can you imagine how distraught I was when I tried to tune in to the FINALE of SYTYCD last night and the Dallas Cowboys were playing instead??? Really? How do you just cancel a show like that? I know everyone else in the country got to watch it. Why play with my emotions like that? And just so they could play the freaking Raiders of all teams?? I know Lauren won and that made my heart happy, but so much that I missed! All the best performances of the season... reactions to winning and losing... guests on the show that Cat Dealy promised me I wouldn't want to miss. Grrrrr! It made me feel a lot better to see that Dallas lost.. to the RAIDERS. Sorry if I've upset any fans. Love ya.. mean it.

I'm sorry for the most boring post ever. Carry on.

Today's gonna be a good day

Finally ~ a morning to sleep in! Even though I don't have a "job" per say, I never let myself sleep in any later than 7:30 during the week. Even that is late compared to my life back home when I worked every day, but I'm usually up between 7 and 7:15. That's after waking up initially with Trey's alarm clock at 5... Today we didn't get out of that bed until 8:45!! It felt SO good. I know he especially enjoyed not having to do PT at 6 in the morning. We got up and I made coffee, eggs, and turkey bacon. Ever since we've just been lounging around with all the Christmas lights on and I'm feeling pretty nostalgic. I have no plans to even shower for at least another hour.

We are participating in the Jingle Jog at 2:00. Okay okay... more like the Jingle Walk for us. It's a fundraiser for the food bank. I'm really excited for Trey to meet some of the people I "work" with every day. When that is over we'll come home and I'll start cooking for our Christmas party tonight! We are getting together with our little group of friends for a chinese gift exchange. I'm making a buffalo chicken dip and brownies. I'm going to be sure to bring my camera. I haven't taken many pictures since we've been out here and I'm wondering if everyone back home is doubting that we do actually have friends...

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! We don't really know what to do with ourselves with no football to watch! ~ one week from today, I will be home ~ !!!!!!!!

You Know It's Love When...

...you miss your favorite show ~ not just any show ~ the season finale ~ because you'd rather just hang with your pup. I'm sick. I really need to get a grip. I miss that little love bug so much during the day that when I come home, I can't get enough. I've even bee skipping meals and it's interfering with me life a little. Here's how today went:
-woke up from a full nights sleep AGAIN without any whimpering/crying/ whatever
-cleaned poopy off the floor AGAIN
-drove away to work with a broken heart because I could hear the crying as I locked the door :(
-got to work at 8:30, left at 11 to pick her up for the vet (vet visit went great. everyone was in love with her at first sight per usual. she weighs 1.7 POUNDS. ha!! Doc wants her to weigh an even 2lbs when I bring her back next Friday. She's healthy as can be aside from some itching that we're trying to work out. I did come very close to tears when they ripped her out of my arms took her away to get a fecal test done.)
-didn't get back to work until 1:30
-spent too much money at the pet store after work
-rushed home from said pet store to give her some massive lovins
-gave her her first bath (from me) a little later and called a co-worker damn near in tears because I thought I killed her. She was shaking and crying so badly that I thought I put her into shock. I wrapped her up tight in her comfort blankie though and canoodled her for about a 1/2 hour. She finally fell asleep. Didn't stop shaking until she went into that deep sleep.
-and here is my current FB status:
Dais was just sound asleep... curled up in the crook of my arm (some may call it canoodling). She woke up and for the first time EVER walked away to sleep somewhere away from me. Is it so wrong that I'd like her to stay a dependent pup forever? It really made me a little sad...
I never did get around to eating dinner, but I did watch the latest Real World episode. Hey... we all have our priorities. Some of us just need to get them in check.

No work for me tomorrow. We're going to Georgia and Dais is super excited to meet her daddy!!!! Just a short trip from Friday to Sunday. I may or may not come home.. I'm just sayin. Too bad i'm waaayyyy to responsible for that!

Beach Bound

My third weekend in a row going out of town.

As excited as I am to be laying on that beach tomorrow and Sunday *pray for these storms to go away* I am slightly more excited for next weekend when I have NO PLANS WHATSOEVER. Am I getting too old??? But really.. I can't wait to get up in the morning and head down there with some great friends. And I'll try my hardest not to hate on all of them when I'm leaving Sunday to come back to work and they're staying the whole week. No promises though ;)

Last night I cooked for the first time in a couple of months. My friends C&J came over for taco night. (yes, i'm aware that tacos take almost no cooking skill. but it's a lot more than my usual bowl of cereal or Lean Cuisine). In fact, the last time I cooked is when they came over last. J is 5 months pregnant and looking so so so cute! They just found out last week that they are having a boy and they couldn't be anymore excited about it. They put her ultrasound on a DVD so that was just all too presh to watch!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Road Trip!!

I'm leaving here at 3:00 this Friday to go see the hubs!! Fo Real this time. Have my hotel booked and everything :) He doesn't think he'll actually be able to go out into the real world, but we're still hanging on to hope for an off post pass. If not, he'll have from 9ish-6 Saturday and Sunday.. I'll take it! With the short week because of Memorial Day, I'm having a hard time adjusting and I can't believe that tomorrow is Thursday and I'll have to pack after work. I'm a little excited so excited I could pee my pants at any minute.

I got a call from him around 5:30 or so today. It's not normal for him to call during the day so I was immediately on edge..

T: Hi. Can you hear me? (in a very whispered voice the whole time)

J: yeah, what's up?

T: Nothing. Just wanted to tell you I love you.

J: Did you just get fired or something?

T: No. I have CQ tonight during the normal time that I can call you so I knew I wouldn't be able to talk to you tonight.. just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. Have to go before I get in trouble.

AWwwwww!!!

And now I'll leave you with a little picture I saw today that made me LOL.

A Little of This and a Little of That

It's officially Memorial Day weekend.. woohhooooo!!

Just taking it easy tonight. Doing a little laundry, packing, and catching up on the DVR. I have a week's worth of catching up to do. What am I packing for you ask?? No, not to go see hubs. I'm leaving in the morning for Charleston with a couple girls and I CANNOT WAIT. Will be back Monday morning with a few stories to share I'm sure and maybe some pics.

My day was going really good today ~ that is until I locked my keys in my car. Uh huh. On my lunch break. Went to get my eyebrows waxed. Threw my keys in my purse. Thought to myself "oh I don't need my purse, I'll just run in with my wallet". Put purse in the passenger seat, lock the doors, slam door shut and immediately say a bad four letter word. Grrrrr!
Luckily, a girl at work reminded me that I have USAA and I could call them and have them send someone out for free. But it did turn my hour lunch break into a 2 and 1/2 hour lunch break.. and not for any fun reasons!

Trey seems to be doing pretty well. We do get to talk a little bit each day so that's a relief. He has from 9-10 to shower, shave, and get ready for lights out so we find about 15 minutes to talk in the midst of all that.. which is better than nothing!! So far he's passing the things he needs to pass so we're off to a good start. For the most part his mood seems to be pretty positive :)

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Happy Memorial Day!!

Busy Week Ahead, but...

it will all pay off! i'll be leaving Friday to go see the hubs!!! (well i'm like 95% sure of that at least) I've tried to not get my hopes up, but who am I kidding. The forever optimist here. A 3-day weekend.. what??? So excited. There will be a couple times that he has to go on Fort for some reason or another through-out the weekend but I'm sure I can keep myself occupied during that time. Trey keeps reminding me that they very well may take this privilege away from him, but on Memorial Day.. really.. i don't see that happening. So it's official.. my hopes are up and in my mind I'm already there. Have any plans Mrs. GI Joe???

Now if I can only get through this week..
Monday: (remember working until 5 is a given throughout the week)
gym and grocery store
Tuesday: dinner with my friends C & J
Wednesday: gym
Thursday: hopefully a date night with my SIL, then packing. If not I'll just go straight home to pack.
Friday: I'll get through what I'm sure will be a torturous day at work and then off to see my lova until Monday!

Today was not meant for me to get the mulching finished. I tried.. I really did. Steve and I cleared out the rest of the beds (minus one little section in the back). Jump in the car to go to Lowes and here's where the day's adventure begins. Typical day in the life of me...

1. took 26W instead of 26E, so we had to turn around
2. go all the way to the wrong end of Harbison, had to turn around again. Should've taken a left instead of a right.
3. Go to Home Depot.. not Lowes.. find the perfect mulch, load up 10 bags of that crap, wait 10 minutes in line, go to pay... guess whose debit card is nowhere to be found.. uh huh.. left it at home
4. Go home and eat lunch.. pick up said debit card.. go to a Lowe's that is much closer.
5. Pull in the parking lot. The torrential downpours figured they'd show up at the same time. Thanks.
6. Decide to go in anyway being the trooper I am and all.. get soaked because mulch is not kept under a ceiling apparently.
7. Can't find the perfect match to my red mulch. But they had it at the other store right? Oh, what's that you say Steve? We were at Home Depot.. not Lowes.

I gave up at that point. I can take a hint. I should've realized it wasn't meant to be at number 2.