No, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. .

Sorry for not updating, I have just been terribly busy lately. So here we go. . lol

Most of my down time has been spent working on my Cafepress shop, I have completely redesigned the shop and added lots of new products. I have spent countless hours reading tutorials and trying to figure out the basics of this web design stuff, and I have learned quite a lot. It gets to be mind numbing though. I am finally getting to a place where I am feeling comfortable with the feel of the shop. . there are still a few more tweaks I need to make and the only big thing left is to make a page with a custom order form. A friend of mine said her husband may possibly help me, so that would be wonderful, and a huge time saver. I have also started a myspace site for the shop, and in this site I am offering layouts, graphic snags, icons, and photo edits. This is fun and I enjoy doing it, and it is an alternative to scrapbooking, since I can't seem to even try to do that because I can't keep Maddison out of it for more than 2 seconds. This is serving as my creative outlet right now, and it is very helpful. The main reason I decided to do the myspace site though is to help generate more traffic to my store, and so far it is working.

Okay now about the family. .

We (meaning I) are getting things in place for Maddie Lou's 3rd birthday. Can you believe that she is almost 3? Because I sure can't! Everyday I look at her and think. . geeze is this my baby? We are having a Mermaid Party and she is so excited she can't stand it. She has been asking about it for months now. We have decided to move the party up to Labor Day weekend because everyone just contacted us and said they wanted to come visit that weekend, lol. My sis and bro in law will be here, and my MIL, my mom, stepdad, nanny, and sister are also coming. . and one of my girlfriends from highschool and her boyfriend are coming. I am so super excited! Hopefully most of maddison's friends will be able to come, but I know a lot of them have stuff going on that weekend which is one reason why we were going to have it the next. But this is going to work out best for the family thing. I am just still having to deal with that fact that my baby is turning 3.

My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months ago, he had surgery to have it removed back in May and it was not successful. So they referred him to Vandy and he had his surgery this past monday. They were able to successfully remove it. Which is great great news. Now we are just waiting on the pathology report to determine if it has spread anywhere else, and it will be a little while before we know if he is totally out of the woods. So keep him in your prayers (or whatever you do).

My mom, is about to have a hysterectomy. She has been diagnosed with endometriosis, as well as several fibroids, cysts, and pallops on one of her ovaries. She underwent a DNC last week and is awaiting test results to move forward with the hysterectomy. So keep her in your thoughts and prayers too.

Yeah, my parents are falling apart. lol.

Brandon is doing great, he is home for a while, well at least until the end of November. He is also studying for his advancement exam right now. He will be taking the E-6 exam the first week of September. So wish him luck. If he makes it, he will have made E-6 in less than 5 years, which is a great feat. Because he has been in for only 5 years, that could come back to bite him in the butt though, it could hurt his advancement chances. But we will just wait and see. That pay raise would be really nice! lol. He will be taking a week or so of leave starting this weekend, which will be so nice. I wish we could go back to bama for a few days, but there is no way we can with gas prices what they are, and us having to spend money on this birthday party. But I am looking forward to just getting to have some here time with him. We will spend some days at the beach, and getting little projects done around the house that we keep putting off, and maybe spend a day in Charleston, and a day in Savannah. We just need a change from the daily grind around here.

Well, I guess I am all caught up for now. I will try and keep this thing more up to date from now on!









{Designs by: Married to the Navy Designs Add our myspace by clicking them to get your own}

My eyes are still crossed.

I tend to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person, not the smartest in the world, but I can hold my own. But web design is kicking my ass. Not even really "web design" I don't think there is any way that I could ever go that in depth. I am simply just trying to make a myspace layout using CSS for the shop's myspace page and use HTML to customize my shop. I have all of the basics down, but the fine tuning is killing me. I have all these great ideas in my head that I just can't seem to get onto the screen. I stared at a computer screen all day yesterday, reading tutorials, looking at examples, trying to find a good code generator so I could cheat (lol). And at 0100 I finally called it quits. I did get the myspace layout finished. . sort of. I still have A LOT to do before I can open it to the public, but it is on the way. The thing that discourages me is that there are a million people out there that make layouts, so why is it so difficult for me? I am sure the more I practice the easier it will become, but right now if I look at another line of html or css code I might go crazy and smash my computer. I don't know how computer programmers and IT guys do that every day. Kudos to them. But today I am taking the day off. No new designs for the store, not changing anything, not working on the myspace. I am going to clean my house, maybe go to the commissary, and play with my little girl since I totally ignored her yesterday. Wish me luck.

Hotdogs, Fireworks, and Tissues

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. I have been really busy, so there is a lot to catch up on.

First off, we had a great 4th of July. We had a cookout here at the house and invited our friends over. A lot of them weren't able to make it, but we had a good time with the ones that could. My husband's command was being stupid and made a lot of the guys work that day, so they missed out. But we did take some of them food. After the cookout, us and Nicole and her family went to Parris Island to watch the fireworks. It was really nice, perfect night. I think the show was shorter than it was last year. Although I was a little preoccupied last year, Brandon was leaving for deployment the next morning. Mom and them were going to try to come this year for the 4th, but turned out they weren't able to. It sucked, and they would've had fun because it turned out there were as many people their age here as ours. ha ha. But all in all it was a great night!!

Well, one of the things about being a military wife is having to learn how to make a great friend and then turn around and tell them bye. It SUCKS. I have lost 2 great friends in the last 2 months or so. Sandi left unexpectedly, so I didn't really have a chance to prepare myself for that. It was very sad and I hate that she is gone, but I know she is having a better time back home than she was here. On the other hand, I had time to prepare for Ashley leaving, and I think that may have been harder. We just kept pretending like she wasn't going to go. ha ha. But then time crept up and all of a sudden we were loading a moving truck. It is so hard to stand there and watch a person who you have known for so little time, but feel like you have known forever drive away in a Budget truck. They are doing what is best for them also. Her hubby is getting out of the military and starting his own company. I wish them the best. I know things will work out great for them. Another friend of mine, Nicole, will be leaving soon also. We haven't known each other very long, we met through another friend and at mom's morning, but I think if we would have met sooner we would be best friends now too. We seem to have a lot in common, and I really like being around her. And our kids get along great too! lol. I am sad that she is leaving and we won't have the chance to get to know each other even better. I wish them the best in their next adventure as well. Many of us wives have talked about this before, it is so hard to make a friend knowing that in a few months or a year you might never see that person again, but then again it is amazing, that we can say we have all of these great friends from all over the world that we will always have one common bond with and that is the military. Even if they are getting out, or just changing duty stations, they will always be a part of the huge military wives family. Anyway, enough sadness. lol

Well, I am sure there is much more to write about, but it will have to wait for another day. My child is begging for my attention and I have to get stuff together to ship Brandon off. Only for a few weeks this time though.

Hey you people!

Any of you lovely people that read this blog (bless your hearts) should take a few seconds out of your busy day and help a sister out . . lol. I am not asking for a kidney or anything but you could go to this website and rank my Cafepress shop! All you have to do is click on however many stars (5 preferably. . lol) you would like to give me and leave you HONEST comment on how you like my stuff. That's it, that's all I need. . didn't hurt much did it? lol. Thanks guys! I appreciate it!

http://bestcafeshops.com/index.php?a=stats&u=jenafur1308

Check out my newest stuff!!

I have added some new designs to the shop so check them out!

Also, order your 4th of July shirts by June 23rd to get them here by the 4th using standard shipping after that day you will have to upgrade shipping.

If you would like a custom 4th of July shirt please let me know by the 22nd and I can make it for you. If you have an idea of what you want email me and let me know and I can make it for you. You can find my email address on the homepage of my shop.


Here are a few examples of the new stuff.


4th of July items





























Other new designs

























Also Available with pink letters and blue letters





Check out the shop!!


Thanks guys!!

EWW Gross!!

So today has been a fun day. Let me start by saying what has been happening the past couple of days. . . Monday evening Maddison had crawled up in my lap and I realized she smelled horrible, I mean horrible. It was time for her bath anyway so I got her ready, put her in the tub and scrubbed the crap out of her. Then I got her ready for bed and she was cranky so I decided to let her lay on the couch and go to sleep. When Brandon got home from work he picked her up to take her to bed and he said she smelled bad. I was like "WTF I just gave her a bath?" So I smelled her and sure enough the smell was back. I started sniffing her all over and realized that it was her face and hands that smelled so bad. So I made Brandon wake her up and take her to the bathroom and wash them really good again. Then we all went to bed. Well yesterday I didn't notice it again, and we spent all day outside with her playing in the pool, when we came in she was exhausted so I put her down for a nap. When she woke up she wanted me to hold her for a little while and when I picked her up I realized she stunk again. Now I am starting to really wonder what the problem is. I decided to hold off on the bath because it was only a few hours before bath time anyway. Well, again I scrubbed her until she was pretty much raw. .washed her hair twice, made sure every nook and cranny was spotless and I got her out and took her to her room to put her jammies on. While I was doing this I started smelling it AGAIN. Now I am like going crazy trying to figure out what it is, so I smelled her entire face inch by inch and realized it was coming from the mouth/nose area. So I took her in the bathroom and brushed her teeth like crazy and sniffed again. . still there. Then I made her blow her nose and I smelled the tissue. . I almost gagged. . it was sooooo nasty. . it smelled like something dead and rotting. EW. So I called mom and was like WTH?? What is this, and she says "Sounds like she has shoved something up her nose!" OMG, are you kidding me. So first thing this morning I call and get her in to see the doctor. . she looks and can't see anything (oh yeah, the smell had stopped too. . and in my panic last night trying to figure out what it was I gave her Little Noses) but she was concerned that it could be deeper in the sinus so she wanted to refer us the see an ENT and have a scope done. So off we go there. . and luckily the ENT said that there was nothing there anymore, but it was a little irritated like something had been there, and by the smell I described it was probably some kind of food. He said possibly when I gave her the little noses she sucked it on down and now it is in her stomach. . EWWWWWWWWWWW. That is so nasty. But he said everything looked fine and she was a healthy little girl. . so that is good news. But it has been and interesting day, and we had a serious talk about sticking things up our nose. . LOL.

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope everyone is having a great memorial day and enjoying time off work. We are busy getting the house cleaned and getting ready to head to bama tomorrow for a couple of days to see our new niece *Sophie Claire* who was born on Friday, and to see my dad who is recovering from prostate surgery. Unfortunately, his surgery was not effective and he has a consult at Vanderbilt in June to see if they can operate. *keep him in your thoughts*

After 2 days in bama we are heading to Gatlinburg with my mom, nanny, and 2 aunts and uncles. It should be fun. We need some time away.

In other news, Brandon got his tat today. I really love it, it turned out great.




Sophie Claire 7lbs 15oz 21in

My Lovely Customers

These are all of the places that I have received orders from in my CafePress Shop. I am international!! lol I just thought it would be fun to keep track and see if I eventually get all 50 states. . we will see. :]

Fun Night for the Kiddo

Last night we got to take Maddie Lou to see Sesame Street Live! She had a great time. She is still talking about, Elmo and Zoey and Cookie Monster and Big Bird and Bert and Ernie and Grover and Oscar. . lol. But it was a really cute show and I am glad that we got to take her. It is kind of sad how we got the tickets. A friend of mine is having trouble with her husband and she left the state to go back home for a while to sort things out and they already had the tickets so she just gave them to us. I hate they didn't get to go too. :[ I wish we would have known about it more in advance because we would have bought tickets anyway. She was still talking about when we took her to see Playhouse Disney Live! back in September. She loves stuff like that. But yeah, good show, I recommend it to anyone that has lil ones and they watch Sesame Street.

It was supposed to be storming, and we were a little reluctant to drive down there and then it get bad, but we lucked out and the weather was fine. Afterwards we went to IHOP and spoiled her with pancakes. . lol. All in all it was a good night. .and it was great that Brandon got to experience it with us. It seems he always misses out on this kind of thing, so I am so glad that he got to go with us this time!

Yipee!!

So, I am calling it official. . we are officially potty trained. No more pull-ups!!! She has been daytime potty trained for quite a while now, but the night time thing is what was scaring me. I wasn't ready to stop putting her in a pull-up at night because almost every morning when she woke up her pull-up was wet, so I didn't think she was ready. Then one day I ran out of pull-ups and didn't have a chance to get to the store. So I told her she was going to sleep in her panties, but she couldn't pee in them. She was very excited, I was not, because I just knew I would be waking up in the middle of the night to change her clothes and sheets. But the next morning I woke up and she was awake and dry. I was SUPER excited. So that was the end of pull-ups. That was a few months ago and as of now she has only wet the bed about 4 times. She hasn't had an accident at all in over a month. . so that is it, I am calling it done! LOL. I know she will probably have a few more accidents over the course of time, but I am just so super excited and proud of her! It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. I just hope the next kid is the same way. . ha ha.