June 26, 2011

Settling in

Well that was not a planned hiatus! Our Internet was supposed to be set up the day before we moved into our new house, but wasn't working the day we moved in. Why, you ask? Oh, that would be because AT&T doesn't serve our new address. You'd think that would be something they'd tell you when you tell them what your new address is going to be.... just a thought.
But that can't be my only excuse. I've had service for a week now (through TWC which is actually cheaper, so eat it AT&T) but I just haven't felt like blogging. One.. I've been busy. Lots of stuff to organize and much more space to clean in this house! Two... it's always a little overwhelming for me to start back up once I've taken a break. I'm not sure why that is. Just need to get in the habit again, I guess. But, I figured with Drew's 10-month coming up, I sure better start or else my mother wouldn't be very happy. 28 years old and still striving to please the woman ;)

We are just about settled in our new beautiful home, minus a few random objects here and there. Once we get the main, highly used stuff up, it's hard for me to find a space for the crap that's left over. Or the motivation to even put my mind to it!
We got a pretty rug yesterday since we have hardwood floors for the first time. We have a few decorations up here and there and have mostly just pictures to arrange on the wall and one wall to paint. I'm sick of living in white boring walls. We'll have to paint it back to white when we leave, so just painting one accent wall seems like the best thing to do. Add a little homeyness, but not too much work to do when we PCS (move).

Like I said, we are just in love with living here. I'm loving living on post! The convenience is wonderful! My morning walk is longer and much more beautiful.. hello grass and trees and good-bye yapping dogs at every other house!

Now that I have this random, almost thoughtless post out of the way, hopefully I can slowly start posting more again. There probably won't be a link up again tomorrow, but feel free to blog about it without me. I'm still reading along!

June 14, 2011

What if....

*I know.. I know.. two posts in one day! To my defense though, the last one was a scheduled post I wrote yesterday*

Whoever said that the feeling of being homesick goes away is a liar liar pants on fire.


Sometimes I wonder what our life would be like now if Trey never joined the Army. If we never left our hometown.
Would we have been able to keep up with our mortgage and still be living in our home? We were dangerously living paycheck to paycheck.
Would we have decided to get pregnant at the time we did? Would we have Andrew right now? Let's say we did. Our parents would never have to miss him. We could go and spend an unlimited amount of time with them. My parents house would look like they had a grandchild besides just the pictures on the wall. Maybe they'd have their own stash of bottles, diapers, baby food and toys. (Trey's parents have a granddaughter that does live in the same town, so their house does look like this already). I could see my mom and dad loving on my baby and I feel like my life would be more complete.

I'm struck with a stabbing sense of regret and sadness when I hear about my friends that are able to do this on a regular basis. Just something as simple as going over their parents house for dinner.. to watch a movie.. to grill out. Visit them when one of them is sick or in the hospital. Spend holidays with them. Watch a game. Anything. Sometimes, it's little things that stop me in my tracks. The other morning when I was drinking the same type of coffee my mom drinks. I was instantly back on her beautiful deck drinking it with her. Or today when a loud truck drove by. For the quickest nano-second I pictured my brother pulling up in our drive way and plopping down on the couch asking for some munchies and a Gatorade. Do you know what I would give to experience these little mundane things????

But, on the other side... What If he didn't sign up.

What if we never moved away? Would I still be that same dependent girl who never grew up? Never did anything on her own? I barely knew how to keep up with bills before he left.. so serious. I can remember while he was at OCS in Benning and I made my first road trip down to see him. It was the first time that I ever.. in 26 years of life.. got in the car and took a road trip by myself. I was scared out of my mind. (Rightly so, apparently, I almost died.) And after a summer of making monthly 5-hour road trips to Benning, I friggen jumped in that same car, by myself, and drove 18 hours to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Me. Ask my friends.. they'll tell you how unlike me that is. I grew so much. I don't know that I would of ever had the chance to do that otherwise.
I look at the people I have in my life now. I've met so many amazing people. It's crazy to me to think that I wouldn't have met all of them had we not made this decision. When you're an Army family, you learn that you don't have all the time in the world to form a relationship with the people you meet. So, sometimes, when you meet the right people, it's instantaneous. After the obligatory, where are you from? Do you have children? How long have you been in? What posts have you been to? That's it.. it's like you've fast-forwarded 2 years into a friendship: you have their number, your FB friends, and they immediately are an irreplaceable part of your life. I've been so blessed in this area.

If he hadn't joined, we probably never would have had the opportunity to see the places we have seen over the past 2 years. That's sad to me. While we were eating dinner at The Edge of Texas last Friday night, sitting outside, looking at the mountains, we talked a lot about that. No, El Paso is not the most exotic location in the world. But, it's beautiful in my opinion. We never in a million years would have randomly said, "hey.. let's book a flight to El Paso for vacation this year". But, I'm incredibly thankful that we're here... experiencing a new to us culture. Viewing a part of the country we wouldn't have otherwise. I'm getting opportunities that not many people get. Because it's not just a vacation, because we live here and will for at least another year and a half (probably more it's starting to look like) we get to take our time. Explore the area. Travel to surrounding locations.
Fort Sill, or Lawton, OK rather, was a hole in the wall, crap town. But I can guarantee you that if we weren't stationed there for a bit, I never would have seen Oklahoma City.. which we loved btw. I never would have met the people that I did there that I now would consider some of my great, great friends.

And this is only 2 years into our experience. Who knows what else we will see. Who knows who we will meet. I don't believe there are any mistakes. The places we go and the people that become part of our lives.. it all happens for a reason. So, yes, while there are the drawbacks of being homesick and missing out on time with family, I still have to say that I love our life and I'm very thankful for where we are in it. And hey, the pay will only get better. Soon, I'd imagine we'll be able to afford flying back home more often.. now I just need to come to terms with the hassles of flying with a child/children.

On the move

I can't tell you how many times I heard all variations of the phrase, "enjoy your baby while he isn't mobile.. once he's on the move you're in big trouble". Either this is something people say just to say or I am abnormal. Because now that this guy:


is on the move, life has been so much easier.

Last week (around Wednesday or Thursday) Andrew up and decided he wanted to "crawl". He's not crawling on all fours, but has taken the low crawling route. Let me tell you... he's perfected it. That boy can move. I'm loving it. He's so much more independent. For the most part now, if he wants something, he goes and gets it. Most importantly, there is a significant less amount of whining, crying and screaming in this house. He's wanted to do it for so long. So when he couldn't we had a mini tantrum. Or when I left his sight.. tantrum. Now he can just follow me if he wants to. Yes, he still has the meltdowns when I leave the room at times and he'll sit there like he doesn't remember that he can move, but it's SO. MUCH. BETTER. And he moves around with this smile on his face like he's either thinking about how proud he is of himself or he's just having the time of his life. That... makes this mama's heart happy.

I guess where all of the warnings from other parents come in about how my life is going downhill from here (slight exaggeration for dramatic effect) is having to keep my eye on him constantly. This is true. While he is up and about for the most part, my eyes are on him. I don't mind it though. It's forcing me to forget about some of the other things that need to get done and take some extra time to play with my babe. And we're having a great time!

June 13, 2011

WW Mondays

Ahhh.. is there anything more relaxing than laying in bed blogging? Well, yes, I'm sure there is.. but I'm super relaxed right now. It's really Sunday night as I'm typing this, btw, and Trey has staff duty (he has to stay at work through the night.. be there in case anything happens.. perform checks around the barracks.. that sort of thing. They take turns doing it and it works out to where he does this about 2 or 3 times a month. Just a little FYI for non-military family and friends!) Anywho.. while I would much rather him be here with me (especially because I'm afraid of what lurks out there in the dark) I do find it nice to watch what I want, eat popcorn for dinner if I want, and blog in bed every now and then! I call it looking on the bright side.

Ohh.. you don't care about my rambling and just want me to get on with the WW stuff? Good, because I can't wait to share my progress with you this week :) :)

This week I lost 3.6 pounds!! Wooo-hooooo! And that's not even the best news. It gets better.
1. I've met my first goal, which was 5% of my body weight, which was 8 pounds. I'm down 8.8 total pounds now in just under a month! I can't tell you how good that feels. How good I feel. No turning back now!
2. While leisurely walking around Target one day this week with Trey, he randomly told me that my legs are looking great. Of course, as I cheesed, I asked him what exactly he meant by that. I needed to hear what about my legs looked so much better (I have short midget legs.. I have never, ever gotten a compliment on these gams). He was talking about the definition in muscle tone. Guess all of those walks are starting to pay off.
3. My pants are getting looser on me. (Is looser a word?). I comfortably wore a pair of shorts that just a week ago caused a little too much muffy top.
4. My wedding ring is loose.

How do you like that for a progress report?!?

Now for our subject of the week. Hopefully, y'all will be more help to me than I am to any of you. I suck at lunches, but most days I don't really care. I eat the same thing almost every single day and it doesn't bother me. Most of the time.
Ready for this excitement?
A turkey sandwich made with reduced-cal, whole wheat bread toasted just so.. not to crispy.. just enough to give it a little toasted texture. (2 points for 2 slices). Add 6 slices of some flavored turkey breast (Deli Fresh) (1 point). Pepper. Cilantro. Jalapenos. Lettuce. (all zero points). Then I'll have either a yogurt (Dannon Light Toasted Coconut flavor - 2points) or 16 red-fat Wheat Thins (3 points) or maybe just some fruit.
That is my go to.
I may throw a wrench in my day by making a little salad with shredded lettuce, above listed deli meat (1 point), cilantro (zero), and 2 Tablespoons of Light Ranch (2 points). With fruit on the side. Sounds boring, but I love it. I'm a simple kind of gal.

Clearly... I need help. Can't wait to hear all about your week!!


June 10, 2011

Flashback Friday

This time last year I was 29 weeks pregnant and looked like this...

I don't think I ever really grasped what was growing inside of me! What a miracle. I looked at him now and am just in awe. What a difference a year makes!

June 9, 2011

Rambles

This is one of my rare occasions that I have not a thing to do at the moment. Sure, there are a few things I could be doing ( ie: starting laundry, cleaning a few bottles, or PACKING) but Drew is napping, my legs are a little sore from all of the power walks I've had this week, and I'm kinda sleepy, so I'm just lounging for now. A lounger with an urge to write with nothing in particular to write about. So.. you get some random rambles today. Lucky ducky.

Trey has been on leave since last Wednesday and it's coming to an end. I'm dreading him going back to work. Not only has it been beyond nice to have him around the house (the company and an extra set of hands? Sweet.), but I've also taken a little vacation for myself as well. Less of sticking to a schedule. I haven't been planning meals or cooking elaborate dinners. Not that anything I cook on a normal day is elaborate by any means, but things have just been more chill. And it's been nice. Waaaaah!

I'm so very excited about our move. We can't wait to be in our new house!! But the whole moving process? For the birds. Not my cup of tea. Couldn't I have just gone home to visit family and friends and come back when everything was done and set up nicely? Is that so much to ask? I did invite some friends over one day next week to come over and help me pack last minute stuff (read: almost everything). They must love me.. some are actually coming even after I warned them how disorganized I am. It's not my fault.. it's the ADD. I did bribe with wine and lunch. I'm not stupid.

Planning is in full force for the big first birthday. I've got the perfect theme/color scheme and I can't wait to get more details in place. I don't know that I will share much on here until afterwards, but who knows I may. I have a lot of work to do which I will be starting in FULL FORCE after the move. I'm excited. I have decorations to find/make, invitations to design and beg Jennifer to make, pick out pictures and songs to do a slide show with (oh yess that's happening and it's going to be my favorite part of the day), a cake to design and find someone to do... fun times!

Does anyone want to come visit us? I'm getting the itch for some visitors. Anyone? Bueller?

I have my pictures painstakingly organized on my computer (saved in folders going from year to month and then saved by date.. yeahh). I've been worried for like two years that it would crash and I'd lose everything. Seriously, I don't know that I would ever, EVER get over that. I've never done anything about it though.. until yesterday. We bought CD's to transfer them all to. Trey wants to then delete them off the computer to add space.. I would rather not. Three years of pics. Is it going to really clear that much up?

We have a Hail and Farewell (dining in event to welcome newcomers and wish well to people leaving the battalion) to go to tomorrow night at The Edge of Texas (little restaurant on the Texas/New Mexico border that we've been wanting to go to anyways.. yes we're that close to New Mexico.. it's not a long drive at all). I'm trying to find a babysitter, but we may have to take him with us. Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal, but it's his bedtime. I don't foresee fun times. I am looking forward to going though. It will be my first one!

The child is beckoning from his cage crib. Free time is OVER.

June 6, 2011

Oh BTW...

I don't think I've mentioned this on here, but it's finally our turn to move on post! After a full year of waiting we were offered a house a few weeks ago. I can't tell y'all how excited I am!! I've always wanted the experience of living on post and as far as I'm concerned there is no better place than Ft. Bliss to get that experience! I love this place more and more every day.

The houses are beautiful. Especially for an Army post. The PX area (Freedom Crossing) is unheard of in the Army world.. literally the first of it's kind. For instance, we went to the movie theater right behind the Commissary (which is super nice and brand new with reclining seats) last Friday night. The atmosphere all around the theater was So. Much. Fun. First of all, the weather at night here during the summer really can't be beat. No matter how hot it gets during the day... it can get up to 110-115 I believe... it always drops down to the 70s or so at night. It's perfect! Anywhoo.. just for my friends and family that don't live here, let me set the scene for you.
Right outside of the back of the PX you have a fountain next to a Starbucks where there are usually little kids running all through it. That sight alone always makes my heart happy. They are so care free and having a blast. You cross the street and have a Dairy Queen, Smashburger, an Irish Pub, Buffalo Wild Wings and the theater. Between the pub and the theater there are large cushy chairs and couches facing an outdoor fireplace. Helloooo! You don't even feel like you are on an Army post. Every Friday night they hold karaoke. Soo.. lots of people + gorgeous weather with a slight breeze + the joy of watching people sing their hearts out + a drink in your hand + a cushy comfy chair = a great time with your friends and family. Or in our case last Friday.. part of a perfect date night. So friends and fam... come on out and visit us! Doesn't it sound fun?

On our way home we were talking about how nice it's going to be when we don't have to make the 20 minute trek back home after enjoying nights like that. So soon.. so so soon. I'll be in the same neighborhood as a few of my buddies (although I will miss living seconds away from Jennifer!!) which will be fun. A skip and a jump away from the Commissary and Freedom Crossing. A bigger house. And for me.. just the plain experience of living on post. We'll see if my ideas are naive or silly, but I am feeling pretty patriotic about it. I look forward to being a part of the community!

We called a moving company that someone told us had a good rep around here. Just to get a quote. We didn't have very high hopes, but turns out their prices are very reasonable. We are going to pack ourselves up and bring most boxes. All they are going to do is transfer all the big stuff for us. It's perfect. It's just a little bit more than renting a UHaul. Not having to do all that work is worth it to my husband! He's definitely not lazy, but has a bit of a problem with asking for help. I was enlisting help for him and doing a pretty good job with it... must be a man thing! All of my Bliss Buddies are more than welcome to still come on over and help transport boxes *and stuff* though :)


In less than two weeks, we'll be making the big move!

Weight Watchers Monday

Welp, I'm going to be real honest here. Another week, another disappointment. And I haven't the foggiest idea why. Unless the doctor's scale is different from WW's scale. I had a doc appointment Friday morning so considered that my weigh-in. I was planning on going in to WW to weigh in real quick that day anyways, but after stepping on the scale at the docs office and having it go UP *point* 4 pounds since last week? I couldn't do it. I've been debating about switching to online only anyways. So much cheaper and the etools program is very helpful for me. THAT  made the decision pretty easy for me!
I haven't the foggiest idea where I'm going wrong. I stayed within my daily points almost every day. I only used 5 weekly flex points. And yes, I'm choosing my points wisely. So unless it's the frozen breakfasts I'm eating in the morning (WW brand at that) or the Smart Ones desserts (that's not allowed to be the problem. I look forward to those all day) I'm having at night, I'm at a loss. I even walked 5 out of the 7 days for 45 minutes each time. I did have my blood drawn for labs while at the doc Friday morning. Not for this reason, but there is a history of low thyroid in my family. I guess it's good to rule something like that out.
All that being said, I'm NOT giving up! I know this works and I'm going to keep on truckin' on. Even though the scale isn't showing anything, I know I've gotta be doing good by cutting my portions way down anyways. Plus, I have to buy a new belt. I was already on the last hole... I noticed earlier this week that I either need to buy a new belt or poke a new hole! So, I guess there is an achievement after all :)

On to our topic.. what motivates me?

Most importantly, is my family. I want to be healthy and live a long and fun life with them. I never want to tell my son that I CAN'T run around with him. I don't want that to be a chore. I want to enjoy his childhood.
I want to set a good example for him. I can't very well tell him he can't have those french fries or cookies or ice cream if that's all I'm sitting around eating. And I can't expect him to be active if I'm not.

Also, I want to feel good about the way I look. When I look in the mirror, the reflection doesn't resemble a thing what the girl inside me feels like. Does that make sense to anyone? I'm self-conscience about the way I look right now. I'm always tugging at my clothes making sure they fit right and are covering up the "fatty parts". Always hiding the chub. I want to be able to throw something on and just feel good about myself. Not try on half a dozen items out of my closet and rip each thing off in disgust.

All in all.. I just want to be a better me. For myself and my family.

What about you? Link up and let us know!


June 5, 2011

Random thoughts

Most importantly, I'm really late in giving the final update on my dad. Let's just say.. he took the really scary and expensive route of getting a check-up. They did the catheter and found no damage or blockage. After that.. they didn't really know what to do with him and released him. He went to his long time, trusted family doctor on Tuesday and was told that the first diagnosis (before all of this heart crap) was correct. Vertigo. While we are EXTREMELY thankful that his heart is in tiptop shape, that was a little much!

I just saw that someone was led to my blog by searching for "13 weeks pregnant fat belly at bottom". Really? Awesome. Way to remind me that my belly is stretched beyond recognition and jiggles like a bowl full of jelly. I hope you found what you were looking for.

My husband and I celebrated our 4th anniversary this week :)
He spoiled me like never before. Thanks to him I will be enjoying a 4.5 hour day at the spa next week and sporting a new Welker jersey come football season. He also took a week of leave from work. We also dropped Drew off with a trusted couple we are great friends with here last night and had an adult dinner that did not include a highchair, baby food, picking toys up off the floor or diaper changes. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to drive with the windows down. Went to Starbucks then enjoyed a movie. At the movie theater. I can't tell you the last time I've been to a movie theater. It was an amazing night spent with my best friend. While we both did talk about that sweet boy of ours from time to time and it was wonderful to have a night just to ourselves (first one in 9 months that didn't have anything to do with work), we wouldn't trade him in for the world. One night was nice. We like having him around too much to do more than that :)

Remember to come back Monday morning for our Weight Watchers post. The topic this week will be, what motivates you? It can be anything and I can wait to hear from everybody!