Finally blogging again

It has been quite a long while since I have been able to sit down and post. Lots has been going on. There are lots of things that need to be updated.. so here we go.

First of all, the move went pretty smoothly, we are pretty much settled in and falling back into a routine. Some things won't be "back to normal" until we get our own place and get our family back together, but we are doing the best we can. Maddison seems to be adjusting very well. I wasn't sure how things were going to go since she is old enough now to "understand" what is going on. But she seems to be doing fine. She is loving having all of her family so close by. It makes me happy to get to see her interacting with everyone. It is really good to be back in Alabama. I have missed it, especially over the past couple of years. I am really enjoying getting to spend time with everyone. Although, I am missing Beaufort pretty badly too. It helps that most of my friends moved before me.. but there are still a few there that I miss. Beaufort was a beautiful and interesting place and I hope to go back and visit many times in the future, but it is time to move on, and I am looking forward to a "break" and hopefully getting to spend a few years back in Alabama.

Which brings me to my next update, Brandon. As most of you know, he is currently deployed. This deployment is pretty hard, being the third in 3 years, but surprisingly we are making it really well. It is helping a lot to be back home, but Brandon and I are at a place where we are very peaceful. We are doing great, probably better than we have ever been. We are extremely happy, although very sad we have to spend this time apart, we know it must be done, and we are both very anxious for shore duty. Maddison is having a lot of trouble grasping this deployment, she is old enough now that she really misses him when he is gone. Almost every day she has a little melt down of "I really miss my daddy". It breaks my heart and some days I just cry with her, but she will be fine, I am sure this time will go by pretty quickly for her. She is coloring him pictures and mailing them, and we are awaiting boxes so that we can get the first care package in the mail. I will keep her busy, and vice-versa.

Brandon has had a lot of ups and downs over the past year. They have had crazy working hours so he has been exhausted, just to tip the iceberg. Many of you were wondering about the Blue Angels package and the Warrant Officer package. . well unfortunately both are a no go. Both were disapproved to submit his final package by his chain of command on the grounds that they could not release him from the command early to go to either program. He was too "needed" for this deployment. He took it very hard at first because he was very excited at the prospects of either program, but he has moved past it now and is worrying about the future and not the past. He did what he needed to do to prepare for both of those programs, but the final verdict was out of his hands. He now is trying for recruiting duty, back home. He is in desperate need of a change of pace. He was at a place where he was ready to throw in the towel and hang up his Naval career because of the enormous amount of pressure with no pay off that he was under. But he feels now that if he can get a change of pace for just a few years that he can hang in there, he really would love to stay in and retire, but at the pace he was going, he knew he wouldn't make it. So we are keeping our fingers crossed right now for recruiting duty. He also with take the Petty Officer First class exam next month for the 2nd time. Lets hope he makes it this time. . if so, he will still be a very young First class. The quota for advancement has just been so low lately it is very difficult for anyone to make it. But I am sure if he does make it I will post a very happy blog about it, lol.

Well, I think that is all I have to update about right now, at least all I can think of. Thanks everyone for all of your support! Love you all bunches!!

A What?

So yesterday evening we had a maintenance guy come out to fix our garbage disposal.. he isn't able to, so he says he will be back in the morning and leaves. About 30 seconds later he knocks on the door again, I open it and he says "Ma'am, there is an alligator in your front yard!" I say "Brandon!" lol. We go out and sure enough there is about a 2 1/2-3 foot alligator hanging out about 3 feet off the porch. Well the poor guy wouldn't touch it. . and one of our friends, Nate, was here hanging out. So of course him and Brandon decide to wrangle it. lol. The ultimate Redneck show, Nate is barefoot and all. It was pissed. . it was hissing and snapping and probably could have taken off a finger if given the opportunity. Finally, Brandon pinned its head down with the rake and Nate grabbed him, then Brandon taped his mouth shut with electrical tape, because that is what they do on TV.. LMAO. Our neighbors and half the squadron came over to see the show as well. Then we were like "what the hell do we do with it?" They decided they were going to take it to the boat launch to release it, but I wanted to call animal control so they would take it somewhere else, and not release it next to the park where our children play. Even though he is little now, he will be big someday you know. So I got the number for base animal control, and got no answer so it transferred me to the MPs. Well, they get here all freaked out and not wanting to touch it. .lol. Finally they took it and I asked what they were going to do with it, and they said go release it at the boat launch. UGH. If I would have known that, I would have let the guys take it so we didn't have to deal with police reports and all that. Anyway, I guess the good news is that when he gets big enough to eat a small child we won't be living here anymore. Although we did see at least a 10 foot one down there a few months ago. . scared the BeeJesus out of me! Anyway, it was fun excitement for the evening. . and now Nate is a certified Gator Wrangler. . lmao.

Day 3 of

Operation: One Hott Momma

and things are going well. I am hell bent on making it work this time and I need support from you people. Harass me. Don't let me give up. I have to do this, if not I will be out of hope for sure. When I look in the mirror all I can think is "how in the hell did I get like this?", it disgusts me. But I am such a "right here, right now" kind of person that when I don't see results in a couple of days I give up.

I feel like I have more motivation right now. I am currently only using the Wii Fit. I freaking love it. And it harasses me, which I need. And if nothing else the motivation of spending $150 to get it will keep me going for a little while. After I start getting more flexibility and cardio strength I am going to start going back to the gym again and so on, but for now, this thing is actually kicking my butt.

This is my routine so far: I start out with Yoga to stretch and get centered (so far I have unlocked about 9 poses), then on to aerobic exercises to get the heart rate up (so far I have the hula hoop, super hula hoop, step class, and jogging unlocked), next is balance games to try and work on my posture and center of gravity (I have about 7 of these unlocked), lastly is muscle training (I have about 11 different exercises unlocked). The game measures how long you spent doing each thing and tells you if you were doing it properly, how balanced you were and so on. . as of now all of this stuff is about a 51 minute workout. Pretty good. I don't believe in weighing yourself every day, but the game wants you to do a body test daily to determine your standings and it weighs you. So far on day two I lost 0.9lbs and today I was up 0.2lbs. (water weight I am sure, I drank about a gallon before I started today). But I don't consider any of that to be accurate. I will see what it says in one week and we will go from there. It also measures your BMI and mine went down a good bit since day 1, I can't remember off hand how much though.

But yes, if you have a Wii I totally recommend the Wii Fit and if you don't have a Wii, go buy one! lol. I think that I will be able to stick with it and do it every day. I have also been eating SUPER healthy over the past few days, no junk food at all (I even passed up strawberry strudel and coffee cake at mom's morning today. . GO ME!). I am realistic though, so if I am not able to eat perfectly one day or I have to miss a day of work out then I am not going to freak out and give up! I really hope that when I get back to AL I can join WW again too. . that will help a whole lot!

So thanks in advance for the support that I desperately need, and by this time next year I am hoping to be well on my way to ONE HOTT MOMMA!!! :]

Tomorrow's Forcast. .. 73 and Mostly Sunny

I'm thinking BEACH DAY!! I am in some serious need of ocean therapy. Looking forward to laying there doing nothing, possibly reading a book, as the waves crash and Maddison builds whatever her imagination creates for her. Sounds lovely. Now, hopefully it is not extremely windy and miserable. . we shall see.

On the other hand. . Saturday's forcast 75 with a 70% chance of Severe Thunderstorms. . here we go again.

Pic of Maddie Lou from Yesterday. . LOL

Proud Momma!

Brandon got his diploma in the mail today! Now it is official! LOL. Too bad he wasn't here to get it! :[

My Monthly Update

I haven't written in a while, so thought I would give it a shot. For some reason I haven't felt like I have had much to write about lately. Well, other than bitchy whiny "my hubby is leaving again" posts, and I know you guys don't want to read that all of the time so I refrain. lol. Anyway, on to the updates.

Well, Brandon is gone again. He is on a boat det.. around a month long, dunno where they are going, somewhere out in the wide blue yonder. He HATES this boat so far. He thought it would be a million times better than the Big E, but he was wrong (well at least so far, things still have time to change). The boat is nicer and the amenities a little better (not that they get a lot of those! lol), but the rules seem to be a lot more stupid, the high ups total assholes, and so on. He says that it will be a long deployment if shit stays the same. I feel bad for him. On a happier note. HE GRADUATED!!!! WOO HOOO!!! He now officially has his associates in Professional Aeronautics (well not physically, he is still waiting on the diploma in the mail . ha ha). But he did it! I am proud of him! He is going to be taking about a year off from taking classes due to the fact that the will be gone so much this spring and then deploy this summer, he doesn't really have a choice. But he will be taking that time to get a huge qualification for the Navy that will help make his evals look really good. Then after that he will hopefully be able to start back to work on his Bachelor's. Getting this finished has made him 100% eligible for the flying warrant officer program. . however the navy has not put out their NAVADMIN for it this year yet, it was supposed to have been out already. . so we are hoping that they didn't decide to cancel the program for some reason. Wouldn't that be our luck? Well, as soon as that comes out he will be able to put his package in and then the waiting starts. But if he doesn't make it, we have plenty more opportunities that can be taken. Also, in about 2 weeks he will be taking his First Class Petty officer exam again. So we will be keeping our fingers crossed again that he makes that. . even though once again it is a long shot. He just hasn't been in the Navy long enough and they are not promoting very many people each cycle. . Last time it was about 13 out of 400 that got advanced. . but we can still hope! ha ha.

Not much new going on with me. . I will not be moving in March like we had planned. Still not sure if I am going to move, but if I do it will be in July. So there is still a lot of time between now and then, I will figure something out. haha.


Maddison of course is growing like a weed. I am so proud of her. She is now recognizing all of her letters, sometimes she has a little trouble with some of them, but she gets them other times. She is also learning her letter sounds. I think she will be reading before she starts school. Who knows? She is a smart one! I am anxious to see how she is going to handle this deployment. She is not doing so well with the det so far, and he hasn't been gone very long! She keeps crying and saying "I want my Daddy". I know it will be hard on her, it will be hard on me as well, but we will find our ways to cope with it.

Well, can't think of much else to talk about.. I just haven't had a lot to say lately. And nothing interesting is going on around here.

Some recent pictures from Charleston & Stuff

I am bored so I thought I would do it too. .

I got this from Ashley. . everybody's doing it. . LOL

1. Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant?
In the bathroom at my first apartment in Virginia Beach

2. Who was with you?
Ashley Kay was in the bathroom with me. . Brandon was in the living room

3. What was your first reaction?
HOLY SHIT! Then denial, then shock, then acceptance. . lol

4.What was your husband's reaction?
Well, he was playing a video game. .and Ashley and I walked in and I handed him the test. He looked at it and said "that sucks" and went back to playing the game. I almost broke down in tears and Ashley hit him. He said "Holy shit, I thought it was hers (Ashley)!!" lol. . after that he was in denial, then shock, then acceptance. . oh and I took 5 tests. . lol

5. Who was the first person you told?
well, Ashley was in there. . so she saw. . we told Brandon, and then the first person after that was Nanny. lol. I wasn't sure how my mom was going to react and I knew Nanny would be happy. And before I even said anything to her she just out of the blue said "Are you pregnant?" I was like "what??? Why do you think that??" And she said she just had a feeling. . and then I told her I was. She was very excited. . and so was my mom when I finally told her. .lol

6. Were the pregnancies planned?
NO

7. Was everyone happy for you?
I believe everyone was. . if they weren't they didn't say anything to us.

8. What was the sex?
Girl

9. What was the nursery theme/colors?
Pink, Green, & Yellow. . butterflies/garden stuff

10. Did anyone throw a shower for you?
Yeah. . Brandon's mom and Aunt and some other family did. . and my mom, aunts, and cousins threw me one as well! It was very nice. :]

11. Did you get any outfits you wouldn't use?
Yeah I got a few. . lol

12. How much weight did you gain?
34lbs

13. Did you get stretch marks?
yes :[ On the top of my stomach and on my boobs

14. Did you crave anything crazy?
ketchup (which i used to hate).. funnel cake (lol and when Brandon got it I took 2 bites and didn't want it anymore). . chicken McNuggets from Mickey D's (I usually hate that place).. and ICE (I was so anemic), Brandon would go to 7-11 and buy huge bags of it so I could eat it a bag at a time. . lol

15. Who or what got on your nerves the most?
Brandon. And stupid people at work. ERG.

16. Where were you when you went into labor?
In the hospital. . I was induced

17. Did you have any complications?
none during my pregnancy until the last 2 days. Then all hell broke loose. . I had pre-eclampsia so they decided to induce. . then long story short. . the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, they broke my water too soon so I got an infection, she passed meconium, my first epidural dislodged so I had to get another one, I had a 4th degree tear, I ruptured 2 arteries. . hmm. . should I go on. . lol. . the main thing is that after 35 hours of labor we were both okay in the end.

18. Did your water break?
The doctor broke it. . way too soon.

19. Who drove you to the hospital?
Brandon. . mom was in the car too.

20. Did you go early or late?
Induced the day before my due date. . had her the day after my due date.

21. Who was in the room?
Brandon, my mom, and a bunch of dr's and nurses and corpsmen.

22. Did you video tape it?
No

23. Did you have any pain medication?
Yeah, I had and epidural finally.. then it dislodged because they kept making me roll over to make Maddison move around. . then I got another one. .but by the time it kicked in I might as well have not had it.

24. Did you have a c-section or natural?
natural. . but it should have been a c-section

25. What was your reaction to the birth?
I don't really know.. It wasn't that happy "OMG we just had a baby" thing. . because they took her straight to the table to start working on her because she wasn't doing so well. . I think her first APGAR was a 2. And they were calling in a surgeon to stitch me up because I had torn so badly and ruptured 2 arteries. . so I was bleeding really bad. So it was quite chaotic. After everything finally settled down I passed out. . I was so tired. I had been in labor for 35 hours, I couldn't even focus on what the dr was telling me. I slept for a while and when I woke up and really got to spend time with her it was amazing.

26. How big was the baby?
7lbs 11ozs (it is because I went to 7-11 almost every day when I was preggo.. .lol. . had to get my snacks for work)

27. What was the baby's full name?
Maddison Harlee

28. Did your husband cry?
I think so. . but I wasn't all there. . so I dunno. I know he had to leave because he was so upset. He thought that we were both going to die and it was too much for him to take, so yeah, I am sure he cried.

29. When is the next one coming?
Ha. . who knows. . At least 2 years

30. If you could, would you do it all over again?
Yes, it is totally worth all the mess and pain. I just hope next time things go a lot more smoothly. . or I have a c-section. . lol

Another Step down. . a few to go. .

Brandon just told me that he passed the Pilot Aptitude Test!! He passed it by quite a bit and he didn't even study once! I am so proud! That is one more step finished in the process to submit his flying warrant officer package. Now he has to get his Associates (which he finishes his last 2 classes for that next week!), get his physicals done (he made the appointments today!), and get the rest of his paperwork in order. YAY! He should have the package submitted within the next month, and then we will have to play the waiting game. The results will not come out until December. Of course it is a long shot that he makes it, thousands apply every year and they only take something like 25 or so. But hey, you defiantly won't make it if you don't apply at all right? Just help us keep our fingers crossed. This would be so great for him and he deserves it so much!


Jennifer is doing a Happy Dance!!

Yummy. .

I made my first homemade pizza last night!! I was so nervous about how it would turn out. (Mostly because the last time we attempted a pizza I was about 8, having a sleepover, and my mom decided it would be fun for us all to make a pizza. . good idea in theory. She bought a kit to do it, and in the end we ended up eating it with spoons because the dough never set.) But this time it turned out perfectly! I was so excited!! It took forever to make though, that was the only downfall. After you got the dough mixed, kneaded, and let it rise for an hour, cooked the sausage, formed the dough, put all the toppings on it and let it cook for about 30 minutes you are starving. . haha. It is so much easier to call Papa J's. But it was super yummy and we had fun making it, so I am sure I will attempt it again in the future! Next time we will experiment more with toppings. . we were keeping it simple this time since we didn't know how it would turn out. :]

A picture for your drooling pleasure. . lol

Even More Aggravating. . .

This weekend is plotting against me. Yeah, I was pissed and stuff last night, but I eventually got over it. The night was wasted. . but after he finished his homework we ate dinner and then played some Wii games for a while before heading to bed. I just told myself "it is fine.. .we still have the whole weekend".

Brandon is on duty this weekend, my Navy wife friends understand how this works. He had watch yesterday (0800-1600) and was told that was the only one he would have this weekend! We were so excited because a watch that great never happens to us. We knew we had the rest of the weekend not worrying about working around a watch.

Anyway, they also have to muster every morning at 0800 when they are on duty. So he gets up this morning to go muster, Maddison was still sleeping, because it is all dark and rainy today, so I decided to go back to sleep as well. When I woke up at *cough* 9:00, Brandon still wasn't back yet, strange. They usually only take about 15 minutes. So I figure he got stuck having to clean something really quick. Then I check my phone to see if he called. . no, but I have a text message. "I am really sorry but I had to take a watch today, they had 2 people on leave that nobody knew about so I have to cover a watch today, either the 0800-1600 or the 1600-2400, I bumped a guy off of the 08-16 so I am currently standing that" "Oh and by the way, I have to stand an extra hour since I didn't find out until an hour after he had already been standing it, Love you".

WTF???? Why does this crap always happen to us? I finally think things are going smoothly and then something happens. So now today is pretty much shot as well. He won't get off watch until 1700 instead of 1600. .by the time he gets home it will pretty much be dinner time again and another day is shot! Not to mention I had told maddison I would make her pancakes this morning, but now I am not going to because I don't want to make pancakes for just me and her, and she is all upset. Geeze. . life. . come on. . cut me a little break. . pleease.

Again, sorry about another whiny post. . I am having a rough weekend.