Merry Christmas

No, I haven't gotten sucked into the Christmas before Thanksgiving hype. Just because I'm itching to put the tree up and it's hard to walk by the closet that holds our decorations... I've still held out. Okay.. maybe I'm listening to Christmas music in the car. Sue me. I have to start early so Andrew can learn all the songs.

Santa did, however, visit our house early. Well, for me at least.
I had already put the bug in his ear that I wanted.. no.. really needed.. a new camera this year. My old, slow reacting one just wasn't cutting it in this fast-paced toddler-run world. 
THEN.. then.. my camera disappeared, which I believe I've mentioned. Ummm.. I absolutely cannot let a month go by without taking pictures. Not possible.
So now, thanks to Santa Clause himself, I'm the proud owner of one of these babies -

A Canon PowerShot SX40! While it's not as high tech as it would have been (ya know.. since we didn't have another month to save) I think this one is perfect! It's a step up from the point and click that I had, but not so much to overwhelm me... I think.. ha! Plus, it came with a bag, a little tripod, and an extra memory card. Hopefully I'll have lots of fun pictures to share :)

Anyone have any experience with this camera, by any chance?

Oh, and remember this post from Friday? You know.. about this smoothies. Way to leave a sister hanging! You mean to tell me that none of y'all have any smoothie concoctions to share? Except my dear friend Kristy? Y'all are in trouble!!

You know you're a mum when...

1. You bounce your laptop lightly in your lap.. true story. Happened last night.

2. You go to Target for a few necessities and realize once you get home that you left your bags at the register. Yup. Didn't pick a single one up. It's called sleep deprivation.

3. You've had a horrid morning and he will not let you put him down. You can't have breakfast or shower. He finally goes down right around lunch and you only last about a half hour before you want him in your arms again!


That's all I have for now, but I'm sure there's more to come.

Yay for the friggen weekend! Our guests have left for now. I had a great time with my in-laws. They spoiled us all mercilessly and wore me out. We did a lot and got out of the house lots, but it was a good thing. They got me out of my comfort zone with the babe and now I think nothing of toting him around town. Between pumps of course... I digress.


Things I'm ready for?
A weekend full of football. Hopefully we'll be able to watch the games we want to this time (Bama is playing Arkansas.. seriously? You have to show that one ESPN. And it would be lovely if I could watch a Pats game.. just sayin.. I'm having Welker withdrawals.)
I'd also like to fast forward to next weekend when The Storey's come and visit us. Yayyy.. more visitors! They are long time friends of ours and I can't tell you how excited we are to have them out here for the weekend! And we are just floored that they are coming all the way out here to see little ol' us.. who am I kidding.. I'm pretty sure it's to get their hands on this little monkey:

And thennnn... my brother comes out for a week on the 16th. We have some pretty amazing people in our lives and I'm a lucky girl!

The Big Day

No, I'm not telling what the sex is in this post! We don't even know yet. I'll have a scheduled post up tomorrow early afternoon to spill the beans :)

I am just overwhelmed with excitement. Trey is home now.. go figure. The original appointment was set up for 4:15, but I pushed it back to make sure Trey could go. He hasn't been able to go to any appointments yet, so I really wanted to make sure he could go to this one. I can't wait to see his facial expression when he finally sees that precious baby moving around and hears the heartbeat. But, of course, he was released super early today (after he passed his last big exam!!) and we now have to sit around and wait for 6:15 to roll around. The suspense is KILLING me.

I've been lucky enough to have a couple girlfriends keeping me occupied through the morning, but now they've all carried on with their own lives and I'm just counting down the minutes.. trying not to watch the clock.. because a watched clock never ticks?

I can't believe in just a few short hours I'm hopefully going to know what we're having *please don't be modest today baby and show us all your goods*. I can finally stop calling it "it". We have names picked out (yes I'll share both names tomorrow) and I can start addressing "it" by an actual name. I can pick out lots of cute baby clothes!

It's going to be great to just know and I'm in disbelief that it's April... I'm just about half way through with this pregnancy. Where has the time gone?

I'm so excited...

... and I just can't hide it.

Wow.. a little of the top maybe.. but it's true. I'm so excited for everything in my near future.

First and foremost ~ I get to go home at the end of April!!! I could burst, I'm so happy. Have my plane tickets and all. You see, I have a lot to catch up on back in SC. My friends have been busy if you know what I mean. I have 2 new babies to meet (one being my presh niece) and one little boy has done his fair share of growing since the last time I saw him. Plus, I have an aunt and cousin flying in from Massachusetts during the same week! I'm excited to see all of my friends and family and I can't wait for them to see me and my hopefully much bigger tummy by then.

Next ~ I'm in my 2nd trimester!! Yaayyyy! There was so much relief with that milestone. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably worry a little bit throughout my whole pregnancy, but chances of the dreaded M word go down by like 80% I think once you are through with the 1st trimester. Wheww! I can't wait to hopefully get some of my energy back!

And ~ Tomorrow we go in and finish our pottery painting.. so much fun! Thursday night we have a big social for Trey's company. Professional picture taking and all. I can't wait to finally wear my dress and I'm thankful it still fits!

FYI ~ For those of you who are Francine Rivers lovahs like me... she has a new book coming out March 16th. It's called My Mother's Hope and it's the first book in a 2 book series. Can't wait.

Then ~ I'm going to be having a giveaway soon. Like real soon. I'll be announcing it by the end of the week. YOU should be excited.

Also ~ I'm getting more and more excited for our move. We've started to do a little research and did you know that El Paso is sunny, on average, 302 days out of the year? Hallelujah!! Now if we could just get those stinken orders, I'd be even more of a happy camper!

The best part of waking up...

since Christmas has no longer been Folgers. Remember when I mentioned that we got one of those really cool Keurig single cup coffee makers?? We've been in love with it ever since, but we ran out of our coffee supply last week. I kept forgetting to order more (yes, I have to order because I live in the middle of nowhere and there is no Bed, Bath, and Beyond in any sort of reasonable driving distance) so we've been in major withdrawals for a few days now. Doesn't seem like a big deal to you? Imagine my poor husband standing at the counter every day, spinning the empty coffee rack round and round, hoping a cup of coffee would jump out at him... yeah....

So I finally get around to ordering them on Saturday from this website. And I have no real point in this blog other than to tell you that our coffee supply is now in transit (in Nashville) and will be here tomorrow :) It was so much fun picking them all out and I was very pleased to find that they had half caf! No plain ol' decaf for me anymore... I'll be treating myself to a little caffeine every day now. I'm almost out of the 1st trimester and all doctors looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I was avoiding caffeine anyways... I was still hesitant (and still kinda am honestly), but apparently 8oz of caffeine a day is A-OK. Just a little FYI...

*This shot-out was not paid for by Keurig... I really just love them that much*

The Day I Made My Big Announcement

I have been bursting at the seams to come out with this news to you all for a couple weeks now and I CANNOT hold it in any longer. Ready? Are you sure??

















That’s right… I am 6 weeks (and today.. 2 days) pregnant!! I know, I know, it’s so early to make an announcement like this, but Trey and I are just sooo soo soooooooooo excited. Most of our family knows along with most of our friends *ALTHOUGH NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT ON FACEBOOK* and because I use this blog as my journal, clearly I’m going to want to look back on this. Yes, I guess I could just write in one for only myself to see, but what fun is that??? I do know the risks that go along with telling people so early, but I refuse to think about that. I’m staying very positive. Plus, if anything did happen, I wouldn’t be able to hide that on here anyways.

So there you have it. I wanted to let it out about 50 times in my 2009 survey I did yesterday. We are so excited to start this new chapter in our lives. Our due date is August 29th and we can’t wait to me him/her.

As a disclaimer, this blog will in all likeliness turn into pregnancy and baby talk for the majority of the next 8 months... who am I kidding.. And for the rest of my child’s life. I hope you don’t mind and hope I don’t lose any readers, but the fact is… this is all that’s on my mind for now!

The day before the day before we leave

In case any of you haven't notice ~ I'm just a little excited to go and visit with family and friends! I started getting ready for our trip today and got more done that I planned to. Did bookoos of laundry which was a pain in my arse. Apparently, Wednesday mid-mornings are a very popular time to use the apartment's laundromat! Finally got that done with a little cleaning of the bathroom in between. -this whole house WILL be spotless before we leave, down to fresh, clean sheets. Very important to my sanity to come home to a clean house.- I made my packing list and even got a majority of the packing done (clothing wise at least). I didn't plan to do that until tomorrow.
Trey's CO's are holding fast to the plan that we can't sign out until midnight Friday night. Seriously? You're really going to dismiss him around 2 and then we just have to sit around and look at each other for 10 more hours??? That's precious driving time. I'm still holding out hope that they get a touch of the Christmas spirit and let us leave early. Just in case though, we are staying up as late as our eyes will let us Thursday night and I will sleep as far into the day as possible on Friday. Trey will still have to get up at 5 for PT, but that's good for him. That way he'll come home and if we can't leave, he'll sleep until later in the night. Maybe I'll make some coffee around 9:30 - yes, pm - and maybe we can eat at IHOP before signing out.
Grrrrr while reading over my shoulder, hubs informed me that we absolutely are not leaving before midnight, so operation stay up as late as possible and sleep all day Friday is on. I might as well make the best of the situation - it'll be fun trying to stay up tomorrow night. Pizza and movies it is. Wish. us. luck.

edited to add: my bad! I forgot a little piece of vital information regarding our trip. Hubs leave doesn't actually start until Saturday, hense the reason we can't leave until 12:01. Teehee..
Army 1, Jessica 0

Sorry to bore you with all that, but don't you feel better knowing my sleep schedule for the rest of the week? I may post one more time before we leave, but after that, I'll be on a holiday hiatus we'll call it. I'll be back after the new year with lots more talk and pictures of our trip home. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones!! And if you have a spouse that is deployed during the holidays this year, I hope you are spending it with many friends and other family. Thank you so much for your sacrifices!!

Ohhhh yeah!!! How 'bout that SYTYCD finale??? I am more than in love with Russell. My feelings would not be hurt at all if either him or Katherine win! He has come so far, excels at every single style he attempts, and I just love his personality and heart out there. The only way I will be extremely ticked off is if Ryan or Ashleigh win. Ash isn't that bad, but I really don't see how or why Ryan is still on the show. And the whole "we're so much in love that we cry when we're together and can't stop hugging and kissing in front of the camera thing"? PLEASE don't tell me anyone is dumb enough to fall for that. THEY KNOW IT WILL GET THEM VOTES!!
End Rant. Seriously, each and every one of those dances warmed my heart to no end. My favorites were: Kathryn and Jakob's contemporary ( I admittedly shed a tear or two on that one.. beautiful.. but can't find it on YouTube), Kathryn and Ryan's Samba (she made it.. not him), Russell and Eleanore's Paso Doble, and Russell and Kathryn's hip hop. Now you know I have to show as many videos as possible because I want so badly for you all to be just as enamored as I am :) Aren't you all glad I learned how to post videos??

That hot little Samba I told you about:


Russell and Ashleigh's Lyrical Jazz. He is so so great in this one:


So many other great ones, but those are all I could find... for now.. muaahhahahaha

Christmas Decorations

I seem to have hit a little bit of a blogging funk - hence the very uncreative title to this post even. I have little on my mind other than going home in ~10~ days. Trey made the mistake of letting me know that his leave papers say he'll be able to leave after the duty day is done (which as of late has been anywhere between 1300 and 1500 hours (1-3) since he is snowbirding. I know with the Army I should not be getting my hopes up about this, but toooo late. I'm there - they are way wayyy up. So with nothing else really to say, I figured I'd show the little bit of Christmas I have going on in our apartment:

You can't really see, but those napkins have a big N in the middle. I think they are so cute. I don't remember where they came from, but I got them last year. I don't think I've actually used them. And see my poor little snowman on the end? His light's gone out... it's been out for about 2 years and I've yet to find the motivation to fix him. Poor guy. I keep those Willow Tree angels out all year. My bff Sara, that lives in Massachusetts gave them to me a couple years ago and started my collection. I love everything Willow Tree. I have another one - husband and wife - that I keep in our bedroom. Those are always welcome as gifts for any occasion ;) I would LOVE to have the Willow Tree Nativity set!Here are our very empty stockings. I sure hope Santa swings by while we're in SC and fills them up for us!That is all. We didn't put a tree up this year. Don't really have room for one, plus the lights I have everywhere else satisfies me enough. We'll have our parents tree to enjoy in A WEEK AND 1/2!

New Obsession

Last night, already on cloud 9 as hubs and I make our way out for our date night, I see the little blinking sign I've been waiting to see from the day I moved out here. "Open". I saw that orange signed lit up and just about lost my cool.

Has anyone heard of Orange Tree??? It's only a little slice of heaven here on earth. Day by day I'd drive by the promise of a self-serve frozen yogurt bar, semi-patiently waiting for them to open. They opened at 5:00 yesterday. So after a delish steak quesidilla and one or two margaritas, I couldn't get in the door soon enough. I may have squealed like a 16 year old girl in line for New Moon when I did get in there. Options and options of flavors. It was hard to chose, but I ended up with a mix of strawberry and cheesecake. After you decide on the flavor, you head on over to the topping bar... to DIE for.

Everything from fresh fruit to candy to cereal and more! I just got some fresh bananas. I stay true to form, make friends with the owner, and get a membership card at the cash register. Yup, I'm a member. And it's so cheap! .38 cents an ounce. I got way more than I should have and it was only $3. That was after taking a bite while waiting in line. Trey ever so gently reminded me that I was not allowed to eat it before paying since you pay by weight. Woopsie.

I will not ever again go to Braums to have a full fledged fattie ice cream. Unless of course it's for a rare banana split....

* this is not my yogurt, I googled a picture so you could imagine it's full goodness. And no, I was not paid to do this post. It's really just that good.

We're in for the night, enjoying a lazy Saturday night. It's pretty dern cold outside and Trey isn't feeling well. I have chili going in the crock pot and baked potatoes in the oven. Trey has football on the TV and beer in his hand. It's a happy household.

Today's The Big Day

Stand by ~

Trey branches today :)

Which means we'll find out where WE are going for his BOLC III.

Which translates into, "I'm going to be living with my husband again"

He finds out around 6 tonight :)

I'm hoping for Maryland, but preparing myself for Oklahoma. More to do with the branch than the actual place...

May I Introduce ~

Little miss Daisy Dukes Norton for the first time :) *yes yes yes I'm going with Daisy, unless I realize she is just not a Daisy when I meet her*

This is Miss Thang herself at only a week and 1/2. I was told she looks like a pig and should name her Porky :( I love the 2nd pic.. it makes me happy that she's already a cuddler!

Pat, the breeder, sent me these today and let me know that she was eating very well (she must really be a child of mine) and is exactly 1lb. Awwwwww! I can't wait to take her home. Which I can do so on July 23rd. That seems like an eternity!!

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.