Hairstyles Man and Woman

I'm linking up with Becky at From Mrs. to Mama this morning because I thought the questions were cute and that you all would enjoy reading about my relationship with D.  If you'd like to participate and link up, you can find her blog, here . 1.   Tell us about how and when you met your love and what attracted you most to him. D and I met twelve years ago when we were Juniors in high school.  We went to different high schools, both private.  His was an all-boys Catholic Military school, mine was a co-ed Catholic school.  Because we lived in the same general area and both went to Catholic schools, we actually had a lot of mutual friends.  In fact, I think its almost funny that it took us so long to meet, given the facts. When he was in primary school, he had a few close friends, Mike*, John*, and Jim*, and they both ended up going to my high school.  Well, it just worked out that my three closest friends in high school ended up being Mike, John and...

So as I stated earlier this week, I had a follow-up ultrasound on Tuesday to get a few more pictures of this little one, and to see if we could get a look at the "goods."  They wanted me to come 2 weeks after the initial ultrasound so when I made a reservation for AJ to go to hourly care the only time slot they had available was from 8:30-10:30 and my appointment was scheduled at 9:30. I'm usually out of there with plenty of time to get back and pick her up, but for some reason, they were really far behind on Tuesday.  I finally got called back at 9:55 and was in the ultrasound room by 10:00.  I was worried that the tech would have trouble seeing the gender again and it would take longer and make me late getting AJ (which I was anyway and they charge $1/minute you're late...highway robbery, I tell you!). Anyway, I don't want to keep you all in suspense any longer than I already have by rambling on and on... We found out that Baby #2 is a.... We're very excited...

If you've been following along for the past month or so, you know that I had my anatomy scan a few weeks ago and all looked great!  We were able to get a good look at the little guy (or girl) and it was wonderful to finally be able to see the baby. You may also remember that the ultrasound tech was not able to get a good look at the "goods" in order to make an educated guess on the gender of our baby.  Well, tomorrow we go back for another try.  I'm really nervous, but also not. D won't be with me this time, as he is currently TDY, but I'm excited to hopefully find out the gender.  However, if for whatever reason this baby is uncooperative again I'm not going to be all bent out of shape about it.  I mean, I have tons of girl stuff.  I have lots of friends with baby boys.  I will dress baby in green and yellow for the first day of his or her life until we can figure out what color is more appropriate.  ;)  I do want to know the gender, but it ...

We had a fun and busy weekend with my family.  It was a good thing they came to visit because I think we would have been really bored here alone with D gone! Everyone arrived late Thursday night (technically very early Friday morning) and went straight to bed.  Friday morning AJ was up bright and early and I tried to corral her into my room until a decent hour so as to let everyone recover from their late nights traveling. Unfortunately the Marine Corps and their artillery had other ideas and the booms started around 6:45!  That woke everyone up pretty quickly so we decided that lots of coffee was necessary.  We mostly just hung around all morning and decided to head to a neighboring town for a yummy lunch.  After lunch AJ, my mom and I headed back to the house for AJ's (my) nap and the others followed about an hour later. Friday night we just decided to stay home and cook dinner on the grill.  We got AJ to bed and made a bonfire and just hung around and ta...

You can assume that I'm buried somewhere underneath the mounds of things that I have to do this next week!  I know I wrote a whole post about it just yesterday, but I've got guests coming to town this weekend.  Six of them, to be exact.  And my husband is gone.  And my two year old is not handling change well these days. As you can imagine, we're going to have quite the busy weekend around these parts!  Options include pumpkin carving, NC state fair, movie night in the park, another trip to the pumpkin patch, the Volksmarch Festival, and lots of playing at the house.  Oh, and I've got FRG responsibilities, and doctor's appointments for AJ, and an ultrasound for me, and a battalion Halloween party to get through in the next week! Seriously.  I feel like its going to be Christmas before I can even take a breath, and at that point it might just be too late to stop and breathe, as we'll need to start gearing up to welcome this new little one to our lives a...

In true Army fashion, our plans for the month of October have changed no less than 27 times.  Okay, just a few times, but they were big changes!  My family hasn't been here to visit in a while, so they're all making the trip out this weekend to see us.  We're talking, my parents, my siblings and their fiancés, everyone! Originally D was supposed to be here and it wasn't going to be an issue at all.  Then in late September he found out that he was chosen to go to TDY for the month of October to support another unit while they did some training.  I was bummed that he wouldn't be here when my family came to town, but at least I would have a little distraction from the month alone with a 2 year old with their visit. Without divulging too many details, the TDY for the month was scratched last minute.  Things were looking up! A week ago D came home and told me that he in fact does have to go TDY this month, to do something else, and that the only, and I repeat, O...

I have a lot of events coming up in the next few weeks and I've volunteered to bake treats for several of these events, which has led me straight to Pinterest to find some new recipes to try out!  I have a few tried and true recipes that I know I can always fall back on, like PW's Monster Cookies, but I am kind of in the mood to try something different! Here are a few of the recipes I've pinned for the next few weeks.  I haven't decided which of the cookies I'm going to make, so if you have votes, let me know! Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars Lemon Cookies Snickerdoodles  My family is coming into town to visit this weekend and I'm thinking about whipping up this French Toast bake for breakfast one morning while they are in town.  I think it sounds heavenly, what do you think? Pumpkin French Toast Bake And D is a big eggplant fan, so when I turned on the Food Network today during nap time and Giada was making this recipe, I knew it had to go on my list of things to ...

AJ had a dentist appointment this morning so yesterday I started preparing her for it.  I find that if I talk about how things will go and prepare her for what to expect, everything goes more smoothly.  I warned her that the nice lady was going to brush her teeth and then the dentist would come in and look at her teeth and count them all. I also told her that if she was well-behaved she would get a goodie bag at the end of the appointment.  Our dentist office gives the kids a little baggie with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, stickers, etc. to take home.  This was the goodie bag to which I was referring.  After I told her this, she asked me if there would be candy in the goodie bag.  Now, I'm not sure what kind of dentist AJ thought we were going to, but I'm almost positive that most dentists don't give out candy. So this morning we got up and I was tired (someone decided to wake up at 12:23 am and apparently I was sleep-conversing with D only 20 minut...

I had every intention for today's post to be a gender announcement post, as we had our anatomy scan yesterday.  Baby #2, however had other plans. We were able to see a perfect, wiggling baby on the screen, but no matter how hard the ultrasound tech tried, pushed, prodded, turned me from side to side, our sweet baby would not uncross his or her legs to show us the "goods"! Luckily, I am being seen at a wonderful civilian OB's office and we're going to go back in a few more weeks to try again to get a shot to confirm the gender, but a part of me is a little relieved that we couldn't tell today.  I mean, I really want to know.  Like really, really want to know.  But the moment I know I think its going to seem so much more real than it does right now.  If that makes sense? I'm kind of happy just cooking this baby, knowing that in 5 short months we will have another little one in our house, but not knowing the gender makes it seem like we have more time than we...

Since I figure you are all probably sick of reading about my rambling thoughts on my pregnancy, I thought I'd share the other big topic that is on my mind lately! Both of my siblings are currently engaged and planning weddings in 2013. My brother and his fiance are getting married first, and have decided to get married in Colorado, while my sister and her fiancee are planning their wedding in Chicago.  The weddings will take place about 2 months apart, so it looks like we'll be having an interesting and travel-filled summer! I am a bridesmaid in both weddings, and D will be a groomsman in my brother's wedding.  AJ will also be a flower girl for both weddings, so we have a lot of fancy clothes to look forward to next year!  D tried to teach her how to do the "wedding walk" the other day and it was an utter failure.  At least we've got some time to perfect it!  ;) Even though both weddings are close together, they are bound to be the complete opposite as far as ...

At the beginning of long weekends I always have lots of plans for all the fun we can have and chores we will get done around the house.  A few days later I find myself still wearing yoga pants and making excuses to not leave the house unless its for Dairy Queen or something equally important. Since D had a 4 day weekend this weekend we got to spend lots of time hanging around and doing nothing.  Friday night we headed out to the sandwich shop and then up to the Halloween movie in the park that our town puts on.  AJ had the best time.  She was running around like a crazy woman and got to star gaze with D, in addition to her nutritious dinner of lemonade and french fries. On Saturday I did manage to make it out with AJ in tow for some shopping.  We hit up Michael's, Old Navy, the commissary and the Halloween store.  I can't stand those Halloween stores that pop up around this time each year, but we needed a piece of AJ's costume and they were out at Target an...

One of the biggest differences that I've noticed from my first pregnancy to this one is the issue of weight gain and food cravings. To start off, I had way more morning sickness this time around, which is to say, I had quite a bit, since I had almost none with AJ.  I think its like a cruel cosmic joke to be nausea free during your first pregnancy and then have it bad the second time around when you have a child to care for.  Whether the universe is conspiring against me or not, I had trouble finding foods that sounded good to me for the first 15-ish weeks of this pregnancy. I didn't really keep track of my weight gain when I was pregnant with AJ, but I know that at this point with her I had gained way more than I have at this point the second time around.  I think I've gained about 1 pound at this point.  Part of the reason for my weight gain with AJ was because if I felt dizzy or nauseas I'd eat a snack and that took care of it for me.  This time, it really did...

As time continues to move forward, I'm determined to check items off my imaginary Fall bucket list before Thanksgiving rolls around and I got to thinking.  What are some of your favorite activities to do in the Fall? As AJ is getting older, I've been trying to plan more fun activities that get us out of the house so she doesn't get bored and because I also want to create traditions as well as fun memories for our little family.  Not that she will remember them yet anyway. Some of the things we're planning to do in October are: Halloween movie night in the park (hopefully multiple times). Visiting the NC State Fair in Raleigh when my family is in town. Picking out pumpkins for our front porch Jack O Lanterns. Making applesauce in the crockpot with AJ, Halloween arts and crafts to pull out of the attic each year. No Scare Fair for the little kids with our MOPs group. Trunk or Treat with D's battalion. Trick or Treating on Halloween in our neighborhood. These activitie...