Christmas and New Year

Our Christmas was wonderful--Jeff had a four day weekend so we had a lots of time to sit back and enjoy the holiday. Jessica got soooooo many presents and had a blast opening all of them. She looked like she was in shock when she first came downstairs Christmas morning and saw what Santa left for her. It was funny. It didn't take her long to realize their was candy in her stocking though!

After we ate our delicious Christmas dinner--honeybaked ham, homemade potatoe salad, green bean casserole, and fruit salad--the three of us met Jeremie, Cherisa, and her kids at the theatre to see the Tale of Deseroux. I couldn't believe the AMC theatre was actually open! It was packed, though, and the most amazing thing happened while we were there. Jeff and Jeremie went to get all of us some concessions, and when they came back Jeff told me that he didn't pay for any of it. I thought that maybe Jeremie had picked up the tab, but then they explained to us that an older gentleman standing behind them in line heard them talking about their jobs and life in the military and offered to pay for their drinks and popcorn. He gave them each $20 and told them to keep the change. He said that he used to be in the Navy and so every Christmas he likes to find service members and help them out a little since he knows all too well the sacrafices they make for our country. I was shocked that in todays society there are still people out there like that....like we all should be...it was a such a kind and thoughtful gesture. It really made our Christmas more special and Jeff assured me that they thanked him several times for his generosity.

As for New Years....Jeff has another four day weekend...YAY!!!!!....and tomorrow night we have some friends coming over to play games, have some drinks, and watch the ball drop. I don't really have any New Years resolutions....unless you count getting pregnant being one!!! Overall I just want to be happy and healthy this year. I can't wait to see what next year has in store for us!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!! And please be safe tonight and don't drink and drive!

Our holidays aren't going exactly as expected....Jeff's command realized that he doesn't have that many leave days left and since they don't like for members to go in the hole with their leave days, they denied his leave chit for New Years, so it looks like we won't be going home. We were really upset and it was very hard telling our family the news cause we were all looking forward to seeing everyone. Needless to say, yesterday wasn't the best day...added to it that the three of us have all been passing the same cold back and forth for about five days or so and haven't been sleeping well at night, so we haven't been feeling our best anyway.

However, we are looking forward to playing the part of Santa Claus tonight and seeing Jessica wake up tomorrow morning and finding what he left for her.....and also, watching her finally getting to open all the presents under the tree--the ones she has been wanting to get into for weeks now! I can't wait! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

Potty-Training

Jessica didn't want to lay down for her nap this afternoon cause she said she had to go poop, so we plopped her on the toilet and she went again!!!!!!!!!!!! That's the big news for today....as for anything else...we spent the morning buying groceries for our Christmas dinner and tonight we're gonna take Jessica to see the Christmas lights on the beach! I can't wait!!!!!

Love/Hate

The love/hate relationship I have going with our house is currently bordering on hate. We just spent about 3 hours with the help of Jeremie replacing the upstairs bathtub drain and some pipes...turns out something wasn't screwed in quite right and it had been leaking for a while and finally dripped through the dining room ceiling when I was rinsing out the tub for Jessica's evening bath. We were able to fix it with a whole new drain kit, but now we have a 1ftx2ft hole in our dining room ceiling where we had to cut down some of the wet sheetrock to be able to reach the upstairs plumbing for the tub. I don't know when that problem will be fixed!

Update

I can't believe Christmas is only a week away!!!!!!!! We've been busy with Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, enjoying the holiday with each other, planning our holiday leave, and several other things which is why I haven't updated recently....but I'll give it a try anyway....

Our Thaksgiving was wonderful. I cooked way to much food for the three of us so we were eating leftovers for days--although the deviled eggs only lasted a couple of hours!! I can't complain though cause everything was delicious. It definetely made up for last Thanksgiving. That weekend was spent putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it. Jessica loves it and had a blast helping!

Our roomie of nine months finally moved out and Jeff spent a couple of hours helping him move. That afternoon was spent putting up our old queen size bed in there for guests (since one of our Christmas presents to each other was a new King size bed!) and organizing some of the upstairs closets since we finally have an extra one to store stuff in. It's nice to finally have the house to ourselves again.

One weekend we painted our kitchen a neutral golden yellow called HoneyPot. It looks awesome and changes tones throughout the day depending on how the natural light hits it. I find myself still amazed with how much a simple coat of paint totally transforms a room. I LOVE IT!!!! And Jessica loved it too! She was quite entertaining while we were busy painting, declaring how much she loved yellow and how "beautiful" it is and how much she "doesn't like orange" now and it is "yucky," even though she loved it a month ago when we painted the dining room. It was pretty funny. Even now, over a week later she still is favoring the color yellow and says she doesn't like orange anymore.

AND...the most exciting thing...at least for us anyway....last night Jessica pooped in the toilet!!!!!! And I know in about another ten years or so she'll probably want to kill me for posting this but we're sooooo excited. After months of trying to potty-train and then her lack of interest in it....and finally she goes! Even though it is sorta backwards cause I know most kids usually will pee in the toilet before they will poop, I'm not gonna complain cause at least she's doing something! Our baby girl is really growing up....I even cried last night when she went! I'm so proud of her!

Thanksgiving Weekend & Such

Our Thanksgiving was awesome. I cooked way too much food for the three of us--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs,, just to name a few--so we were eating leftovers for days. I'm not complaining though cause it was delicious, even though the deviled eggs only lasted a couple of hours!

The past week and a half have flown by....so many random things. We put up the Christmas tree and decorated it Thanksgiving weekend and have spent a lot of time Christmas shopping. I finally wrapped Jessica's presents and put under the tree a couple of days ago.

Friday our computer crashed so we had to spend the afternoon shopping for a new one without spending too much. I love the one we picked out!

Saturday morning was spent painting the kitchen a neutral golden yellow called HoneyPot. Jessica was quite entertaining as we were painting....she kept declaring how much she loved yellow, but now hated orange (as in the dining room, which she loved several weeks ago when we first painted it.) She said and I quote "The kitchen is beautiful and orange is yucky" It was hilarious. I still find myself amazed at how a simple coat of paint can totally transform the way a room looks and feels.

Last night while Jeff was out playing a poker game, I curled up on the couch with some ranch seasoned popcorn and recently bought fudge to watch Sisterhood 2 for a well needed break.

Jeff's New PCM?

Jeff recieved a letter from Tricare yesterday stating that his new PCM effective as of April 2008 has changed to JTF, GTMO and that he should make initial contact with the new PCM within 30 days. There are so many things wrong with that, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Needless to say, we got a good laugh out of it!!!!

Jessica Pics 4...

...taken at the pumpkin patch while visiting mom and dad. These are my favorites, so I saved them for last.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm tired. My feet hurt from standing on them praticaly all day. I just put the coconut and chocolate cream pies in the fridge for tomorrow. Now I know why George and Teresa don't make them too often--cause they take so dag-gum long to cook!! But yet it's hard to complain too much cause I have so much to be thankful for....even the little things that I used to take for granted...like how I actually get to crawl into bed with my husband. I'm so glad that he's here this year....to celebrate the holidays with us....we have so much to be thankful for....each other, our beautiful healthy daughter, our family, our friends, our life.....we are truly blessed. I hope everyone has a safe and happy thanksgiving! And eat lots of turkey!!!!!! I know we will!

Jessica Pics 3....

....taken outside while playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house....again, excuse the blurriness!

Jessica Pics 2...

...taken in mom's van on our trip to Grenada!

Jessica Pics 1

These are some that I took while playing at the park in Scottsboro. I had a hard time getting Jessica to be still or even look at the camera for that matter....so please excuse some of the blurriness.

House Pics

Here are some pictures of the dining room and downstairs bathroom. Both rooms still need base/floor boards and artwork on the walls, and eventually I want a new dining room table, but I'm pretty happy with how they are looking right now!

Our Weekend

Our weekend was busy and exhausting...so much so that I almost fell asleep in the recliner last night while watching Dexter.

Saturday morning was spent painting the dining room orange....my favorite color!!!! We thought we were done at 1:00 only to realize an hour later when it started drying that there were way too many uneven spots and some streaks so it would need another coat....which meant I had to go out later that evening to pick up another gallon of paint, and of course, since I was out without my child or husband, I spent some extra time at Wal-Mart looking at toys for Jessica's Christmas presents and buying a few needed items for our Thanksgiving dinner. After we put Jessica to bed, we both started rolling and were done within 30 minutes. Thankfully when we woke up Sunday morning, it was completely dry with no uneven spots or streaks! And, of course, it looks amazing!!!!

The first couple of hours on Sunday morning were spent cleaning up downstairs and then Jeff and I started a crock-pot of homemade chilli which turned out to be the absolutely best pot of chilli I've ever made....as said so by Jeff! Later on I went to Farm Fresh to pick up a loaf of French bread and some junk food since I was craving chocolate due to that annoying monthly visitor that won't stop coming around for...let's say...about nine months, which explains why I was so tired, crampy, and cranky all weekend. Apparently the ovulation tests that I've been using for the last couple of months aren't helping out any....at least yet anyway...we're gonna keep trying though, but if we don't get pregnant in the next 4-5 months, I'm probably gonna go see a doctor about it.

I'll post some picture of the dining room in the next couple of days and I promise I'll download and post the pictures from our trip home in October....I know.....I'm so far behind!!

Another First

Yesterday we took Jessica to see Madagascar 2 (or as she calls it..."Gadagar 2") in theater--her first time in a movie theater!!! Jeff and I have always loved going to the theater so to see her reaction to the big screen was not only priceless but also incredibly exciting for us. When the previews started, her eyes got huge and her face absolutely lit up in awe and wonder of this "really, really big loud tv" that mommy described. There were a few too many previews in my opinion, especially for a kids movie, so Jessica got a little impatient and kept asking, "Gadagar, mommy....Gadagar 2?" I explained to her that Gadagar 2 was indeed coming and we were gonna get to watch Gloria, Marty, Melvin, and Alex.

AND.....She loved it!!!! She laughed and pointed and was so amazingly well-behaved...like this should shock me anymore...but also we had explained to her before we left that she had to sit down like a big girl and be at least semi-quiet in the theater, and she was! She alternated from sitting between Jeff and me to sitting on my lap. About halfway through the movie she got a little restless and wanted to get down, so we let her stand in front of our seats and I kept her occupied with popcorn, M&Ms, and Skittles. Of course, by the time we got in the car to go home, she was...shall I say...a little sugared up!

What I loved most was the atmosphere--very family-oriented. Even though I knew it was a kid's movie to begin with, I wondered how people would act if Jessica didn't sit down the whole time or if she started talking. Well, let me tell you, I had nothing at all to worry about! It was all families there--tons of parents and their young children...some that were actually younger than Jessica...so no one minded or even cared that a two year old was a tad bit restless and had to stand up and kept asking for only the "blue and green skittles." I was very pleasently suprised and really enjoyed it. It was an awesome experience....one we are definetely gonna repeat!!

Biopsy Results

After almost a week of playing phone tag with the dermatology clinic nurse at Portsmouth, I finally found out my biopsy results--it is not skin cancer or anything malign. It was (and I quote) "a normal hemangioma that was not indicitive of anything bad." YAY! I'm relieved.....I didn't even realize how nervous I was until I'm on the phone and my heart was beating five times faster than it normally does. Needless to say, next time I won't wait so long to have a suspicious looking mole or bump looked at by a doctor.

Women's Multiplication

I thought this was funny, so I stole it from Karla's blog on myspace.....thanks Karla!

'Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So - if you give her any crap, you will receive a ton of shit.'

Our Day

Jessica actually slept until almost seven this morning which has become unusual for her since the kids get here so early during the week and also since she is still adjusting to the time change...I think we all are. I got up with her so that Jeff could sleep in (trust me, he's gonna be doing the same for me tomorrow morning) and put her on the recliner with a bowl of dry ceral, a sippy cup of milk, and a blanket and put a Dora dvd in so that I could curl up on the couch and snooze a little bit longer. That actually lasted for almost an hour and a half which was really nice. Of course when she saw me moving around all I heard was "Mommy, sleep good?...sleep good, Mommy?" It was cute.

A while after Jeff got up, we decided it was about time to paint the downstairs bathroom. We followed our now-usual routine--I did the cutting in and Jeff rolled it. I LOVE IT!! All we have left to do now is install base boards and put the over-the-toilet- shelf back up. I'll have to post pictures when we're completely done with it.

This afternoon I snuck out...without child and husband...to Barnes & Noble to buy the third book in the Twilight Saga--Eclipse--and so far I'm going through it as fast as I have the first two...almost 200 pages already!! I can hear it calling to me right nows which means I'm gonna go curl up in the recliner and get lost in my book until Jeff gets home from his poker game.

Gas & Books

Gas prices are finally below $2.00 here!! The cheapest we've found so far is $1.95, so it only took $25 and some change to fill up the Kia! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier this week a friend intorduce me to a new author--Stephenie Meyer. She's written a suspense series about a love story between a vampire and a human. The books are AWESOME!! It's been a long time since I've been so completely abosrbed in a book that I literally can't put it down....I've read the first two in the series (each over 500 pages long) in a total of two days, and plan to go out today to buy the third and fourth. The first book-Twilight-is being made into a movie and should be released in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!!!

Halloween

Our Halloween didn't go exactly as planned. Jessica was up about six times the night before coughing and sounding very congested, and during the morning we went through half a box of kleenex wiping her sneezy, runny nose.....not my idea of fun. She doesn't get sick very often, but the few times she has, it's BAD! So with the cold, windy weather outside, we decided it was in her best interest to not go trick-or-treating. I was bummed out more than anybody. On the bright side, we didn't hear any complaints from her--not only because she's too young to realize what she was missing, but also because she ended up with a plastic pumpkin full of candy anyway. On our quick trip to Wal-Mart for cold medicine, we also picked up some Hallween candy; I couldn't let my little girl go without some of the fun of Halloween!!!!!!!

As far as my mole removal went...it turned out not to be a mole, but a hemogenoma (sp?), which is a cluster a red blood vessels or cells. It was shaved off and sent for a biopsy. The doctor said that besides it being larger than normal, it looked fine, but I should have the results from the biposy by next week.

Update

Life has kept us pretty busy, so it's been awhile since I've been on here. We arrived back home last Friday from leave. Our time with our families was long overdue, so much fun, and went by way too fast. Highlights would include: watching gleefully as Jessica disappeared into the back bedroom to play with her two cousins for hours at a time, playing poker with Jeff's family and chicken-feet with mine, spending more money than I thought I would on Southern Belle t-shirts, meeting Mandy for dinner at Italia's, going out alone with my husband....without our child...for an afternoon, watching Jessica pick out her own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, seeing that my 10 month old nephew now weighs more than my 2yr old daughter, and trying...unsuccessfully, might I add...to have Jessica's pictures taken--twice!!! OH!! Mom and dad let us switch vehicles with them for our trip to Grenada, so we got to test drive a brand new Kia Sedona for a whole week! I never in my wildest dreams thought I would fall in love with a mini-van!!! Even though I caught some sort of stomach bug towards the end of our time in Grenada (which I was hoping to be a certain 9-month condition, but, unfortunately that wasn't the case) and then passed it to Jeff by the time we got back to my parents, our trip was awesome. We miss everyone so much already; I know one day we will find our way back down south closer to home--where we belong!

This week I started watching a friend's two children--Noah (4) and Kylie (2)--so things have been a bit more crazy with three children running around the house. Added to the fact that on the very first day (Monday) we had ceramic tile installed in our downstairs bath which made for a chaotic morning. Even though there have been a couple of time-outs and a lot of "we all need to share" discussions, the kids really get along good together, so I'm enjoying it and, so far, have managed to keep up with all my usual housework and cleaning. PLUS I will finally be contributing to our household income again! YAY!!!!!!! And it will definetely help out the next couple of months with holiday shopping!

As for today I have no clue what we're gonna do when Jeff gets home from work, but I know that tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon to have an ugly looking mole removed from my back and then we are taking Jessica trick-or-treating. Hopefully, she'll actually wear her adorable ladybug costume cause when I tried it on her last week, she hated it.....screamed and cried...so we'll see what happens.

Have fun and be safe trick-or-treating tomorrow night.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Alabama here we come!!!

I spent the day packing clothes, pull-ups and wipes, toys, various snacks, and gathering all our cds together. The car is now loaded and gased up. All we have to do in the morning is shower, finish packing the cooler and our bathroom bag, wake Jessica up and change her, and then walk out the door by 5:30! Hopefully she'll fall back alseep for a couple of hours, and if Jeff takes the first driving shift, I might too! Well, my tummy is full from Chinese food and my eyelids are heavy from a busy day, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow morning is gonna come way too early and it will be a long 12 hour drive with a very energetic two year old, but I'm so excited! I can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

APPROVED!!!!!!

Jeff's leave chit was officially approved yesterday so there is nothing holding us back now!! We are definitely coming home next week! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Here's a rundown of our 15 days of leave:

DAY 1 (Oct. 9) leave Virginia Beach 5:30 AM!!!!
DAY 2, 3, 4 (Oct. 10-12) Alabama with mom and dad
DAY 5 (Oct. 13) leave mid-morning to head for Grenada
DAY 6-11 (Oct. 14- 19) Grenada with Jeff's family
DAY 12 (Oct. 20) leave late morning to head back to Alabama
DAY 13, 14, 15 (Oct. 21-23) Alabama with mom and dad
DAY 16 (Oct. 24) leave Alabama 5:30 AM to head back home to Virginia Beach

New Floors!

It's been a busy week!! Our laminate floors were installed on Monday and Tuesday, so the next couple of days were spent not only putting everything back in place, but also cleaning and re-organizing. It was worth it cause the downstairs looks amazing now! And I found an area rug at Target to go in our dining room! I love it; Jeff hates it.......imagine that.

Clothes and Floors

We've spent the past several days buying Jessica's fall/winter wardrobe, and thank goodness, cause the temperature is really starting to drop. Target and Old Navy have the cutest clothes and last week Old Navy had a 40-50% off sale on baby clothes (Major Score!) so of course, they recieved a lot of our business--in store and on-line. What I couldn't find in her size at the store, I purchased on-line, so I'm now waiting on two packages to arrive. The only downside to all this is that once I start shopping for her clothes, I CAN'T STOP!!!!!! There's still a few things I think she needs from Target! :)

Yesterday we finalized the installation plans with Lowes for our laminate flooring that will go in the dining room, kitchen, and utility room. It's a gorgeous deep mahagany shade and will be installed on Monday!! After 10% off the labor cost cause the sales rep felt bad about the way Home Depot jerked us around, 15% off from the sale on Pergo flooring, $79 off cause we picked up the product ourselves, and of course, our 10% active duty discount, we saved $600, and the final cost was half the price that Home Depot had quoted us for!!!! MAJOR SCORE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA!! Beat that Home Depot!

Pics of Jessica

Yummy!

The apple lemon chicken and scalped potatoes turned out really good....a few tweaks and it'll be perfect. The potatoes definitely take longer than 45 minutes to cook and need to be stirred during the baking process so they cook more evenly. Next time I should use boneless skinless breasts instead of cut chicken with the skin still on cause the skin absorbed all the flavor...sorta pointless since we don't eat the skin. All in all, though, it was a pretty good recipe, especially being that it was the first time we tried it!

The Past Several Days

Our weekend started early on Friday since Jeff only had an eye appointment that morning to determine if he qualifies for the Navy to pay for his corrective laser eye surgery. He does!! Even though he already turned in the form for his CO to sign, I believe the waiting list is at least a year long, so it might be a while before it happens.

The rest of the weekend was spent as normal--running a few errands, spending some lazy time at the house, and eating out a couple of times, too! If you haven't tried the Asiago Garlic Alfredo from Olive Garden, I highly reccommend it. It was DELICIOUS! Jessie came by with baby Christopher and visited for a good while. He's getting so big and has some cute rolls on his thighs now! He reminds me a lot of Skyler. Of course, Jessica had to give him tons of kisses on his forehead when they left! It was so sweet!!!!

Yesterday I spent most of the morning straightening up downstairs and when Jeff came home, he watched Jessica so I could go grocery shopping. Today we still need to go to Sam's Club to buy our bulk items--meat and bottled water for the most part--and then tonight I'm gonna try a new recipe courtesy of Racheal Ray: oven-glazed apple lemon chicken with cordon bleu scalped potates....YUMMY!!!...at least, I hope so!

Happy with our Life

We are at such a good point in our lives right now. Jeff has been home for four and a half months and we have spent the majority of that time just reconnecting as a family. It’s been so good having him home again, and thankfully, even though his new command (a mobile security detachment) is deployable, there are no scheduled deployments until October of next year.

I actually really like this new command….mostly because of his working hours. Unless he has to stand watch (about once every two weeks), he has weekends and holidays off, Mon-Thurs he’s usually home around 2 or 3, and on Fridays he’s home before noon! I LOVE IT!!!! He hasn’t had this good of a schedule in over five years! So due to this wonderful schedule, we’ve had a lot of time to spend together as a family which is exactly what we needed after being apart for over a year. It’s definitely been good for us!

Jessica is growing up on us and becoming too smart for her own good at times. Jeff says she’s getting too big for her britches, and I tend to agree. Although she tests our limits on a daily basis now, she really is an amazing, well-behaved child. Jeff and her have really bonded since he’s been home, and I think she’s finally turning into a daddy’s girl which, I know all too well, is exactly how it should be. She is truly a blessing to us and has enriched our lives in so many ways. We LOVE being parents…so much so that we’ve been trying for baby #2!!!!! Hopefully, it won’t take two years this time around! We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Here lately I’ve developed a very strong love/hate relationship with this house; I think we both have! We’ve done so much work to it that the results have been phenomenal; however, it seems as though every time we start a new project, we find some underlying damage that ends up costing twice as much to repair and complete the original project. But the end results are worth it, and after some hard work, a lot of time, and a good bit of extra money, we have transformed this 1968 townhouse from a fixer-upper with ugly green carpet into the house we wish we could’ve bought to begin with. We still have more to do, but it finally feels like a home rather than just a house.

New Blog

I decided to start this blog to help bridge the gap between Virginia Beach and three or four other states. There are so many family and friends that we don’t talk to enough or see near as often as we’d like to, so this should allow me to keep everyone up to date by writing blogs, posting pictures, and if we ever get a video camera, I can download videos as well.

I’m not too sure about the title yet and I’ll probably be playing around with the colors and layouts for the next couple of weeks, so just bear with me.

I’m pretty sure…no, scratch that…I’m positive this won’t be updated on a daily basis. I’ll do my best to keep up with it, but if you think I’m slacking or not posting enough pics leave me a note at mommy2jess614@yahoo.com.