Birthday "party" recap

So I had the most epic first birthday party ever planned for Little Dude.  I had hired a DJ and invited basically everyone we know to come over for some fun and food.  I was so excited to have hubby home, celebrate my one-year old, and thought that it would be the first big event for my social circle since we started locking ourselves away for COVID.  

Unfortunately precautions still need to be followed, cases in the Hampton Roads area are on the rise because no one wants to follow the rules, and the Navy has issued very strict guidance about what the sailors are allowed to do (Basically go to work, home, and grocery store) so we had to put the kabash on Little Dudes super extra birthday party....But I wasn't about to let a little thing like a global pandemic stop me from celebrating my baby.  

For starters my mom has had a flight booked to come visit for Little Dude's first birthday for MONTHS, so obviously she is here.   Which is great because I feel kind of bad that she doesn't get to see Little Dude more often.  

We planned to start the day in true first birthday fashion - with a crib full of balloons - but I had to delay that to nap time because Little Dude decides to give me a birthday present and slept through the night for the first time! I woke up about to bust so getting milk out had to take priority over balloons in the crib.  

Then we had a yummy lunch of barbecue and a friend of mine came over to take pictures of our little family and of Little Dude's smash cake experience.   I started to order a smash cake from a bakery but once I realized how simple the cake I wanted was (white icing, lots of sprinkles) I decided to try my hand at making it myself.   The end results were great.   

Little Dudes Godmothers daughter has the same birthday and turned 7 and the other friend who cames’ daughter turned 7 last week so I made each of them a special cupcake to match the smash cake.  

So happy first birthday Little Dude, and we will have an epic party next year hopefully instead.  (These pictures were all taken by me, not my friend - her pictures are way better!) 

I have a 1 year old

How in the world has it already been a year since I had my sweet Little Dude.   The past year has truly been a crazy ride but overall I am loving motherhood.  

Little Dude has been through a lot in his short life; but hopefully that means he will be a resilient adult who is able to roll with things when life decides to punch him in the face.  Here is a brief overview of what Little Dude has been through in the past year:

-A very dramatic entrance into this world followed by a 4 day stay in the NICU

-Coming home to a house with 3 puppies who love to bark whenever someone walks on the porch and scare the poor baby

-Daddy being deployed for almost 8 months

-A flight to Kentucky followed by a road trip to Indiana and Illinois with a flight back to Virginia from Kentucky to meet all of mommy and daddy's friends and family members

-Daycare

-Another flight to Kentucky

-A week hanging out in the lobby of a hospital with a constant rotation of people watching him so mommy could take care of grandma

-5 weeks at a different daycare in the middle of rural Kentucky while mommy continued helping grandma and tried to work from grandmas house

-5 more flights to/from Virginia/Kentucky while at Grandmas

-A 12+ hour one way roadtrip from Virginia to Kentucky then back again at the end of the stay at Grandmas with 3 dogs in the car

-Going back to his first daycare

-The start of a global pandemic and hanging out with mommy while she tries to work from home for approximently 2 months

-A third daycare, still during a global pandemic but with lots of extra cleaning and safety precautions

-Daddy coming home from daycare

But at least now we get to have cake!!!

And this sweet boy even gave me a gift for his birthday and slept through the night last night for the first time!!!!

New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  I don't necessarily make resolutions but I do try to set goals each new year.  This year my goals all center around the health and wellness of my family.  I have even gotten hubby on board with the goals.  

Physical Health/Fitness goals--

Focus on eating at home

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables as a family

Introduce Little Dude to nutritious foods and avoid processed crap

Workout at least 3 times per week

Everyone to be a healthy BMI/BF%

Financial Health goals--

Payoff all"bad" debt (credit cards, miscellaneous loans, cars)

Stop buying "stuff" we don't need and get rid of the "Stuff" we already have

Hit a specific $ amount in our savings account

Emotional/Relationship goals--

One date night per month when hubby is home

No cell phones/computers/tv/electronics in bed

No TV on weeknights before Little Dude goes to bed

Read at least 1 book to Little Dude per day

Read 1 story from the Bible as a family at least 2 times per week

Purge excess junk from our house to help encourage a sense of calm/limit clutter

What are your goals for the new year?  How do you plan on accomplishing them?

Baby Shower!!!!

The season of friends and family members showering me with gifts has begun!!! Today I am heading to my mom's house and tomorrow my best friends in Louisville will be throwing my first baby shower.  I am so excited to celebrate our little one with our friends and family members.  The shower is going to be wonderfully nerdy - the theme is Doctor Who!  One of the hosts and I might be the only ones who understand all the references but it is going to be a fun day.

Next week my mom is going to have an open house style shower at her house so that the people who I grew up with and/or helped raise me can come celebrate our little one.  The party at her house isn't themed but I have no doubt it will be a nice evening with people I don't get to see often. 

All things baby are starting to take place and I can already see how blessed we are to have such amazing friends and family members.  Some of my girlfriends here are planning on breaking into my house while we are out of town (we have a dog/house sitter who will actually let them in) to paint the nursery so that I don't have to. 

I really am so grateful to have so many people who are excited to welcome our little man into the world and who are already showing how much the love him and us. 

Whats the nicest thing someone did for you when you were expecting?  If you aren't a parent what is the nicest thing someone has done for you unexpectedly at another time of anticipation?

Chicken Pot pie

This is another not exactly 100% clean but really delicious and mostly healthy comfort meal.   I made smaller pot pies with the crust wrapped around them verses traditional style ones covered with a second crust so that we could get 1 or 2 meals out of each pie instead of 3-4 that we would if I had made these the traditional way.   I used the cheap-O metal carry out containers I found at dollar tree for these instead of a pie tin also since the carry out containers had lids and were so cheap.   

Next time I will probably use 1/2 as much of the has browns and add an extra 8 oz of frozen vegetables...It was kind of heavy with all of the potatoes with the crust given how few carbs we eat in this house.   

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken 
• Homemade Gravy made from homemade chicken stock preferred or use (2) Campbells chicken/turkey gravy in jar
• (2) Top & Bottom piece Pie Crust
• Frozen Hashbrowns (diced) 16 oz. bag
• Frozen Peas & Carrots combination 12 oz. bag (or any frozen vegetables you like)
• Onion, ¼ cup diced small (optional )
• salt & pepper to taste
  Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take pie crusts out of package. If you have purchased the ones in the tins take one tin out and thaw on counter. Turn the second tin upside down as it thaws.
3. While that it thawing mix together in a large bowl the shredded chicken, hashbrowns, peas & carrots, onion (opt) and gravy.
4. Add salt & pepper to taste.
5. When pie crust has thawed (15 minutes usually) add pot pie ingredients into pie tin with crust.
6. Then take the upside down crust and gently place it on top of the pie carefully. Spread it out and pinch the two pie crusts together on the seams.
7. Poke a few holes with a knife or fork on top of pie.
8. Cover and FREEZE if you want this as a freezer meal, or place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for 35-45 minutes until top is golden brown and you can hear the inside is bubbling.

Baby-Making Update

This infertility thing really sucks....no really, it just plain sucks.   I had an ultra sound done in December to take a closer look at my uterus and they "thought" they saw something, so a couple of weeks ago I went back for a more detailed ultrasound (called a Saline Infused Sonogram for those of you who know the terminology) and determined that I have a uterine polyp.   This isn't my first rodeo, about 4 years ago (yes while hubby was deployed) I was having some issues and they discovered a polyp that was causing them, so I'm not at all surprised that this time around we are taking the same treatment route--surgical removal.  
Say an extra special prayer for me on Feb 26, one week from today.  I am really not a fan of anesthesia or painkillers but given my family history of uterine cancer (not a high risk at my age but present all the same) I would be going through the surgery even if we weren't wanting to have a mini-me soon.  Hopefully this polyp is the cause of our problems and after the surgery we will be able to move forward with having a baby to spoil. :)

24 Day Challenge Check In

So today was day 11 of my 24 day challenge.   This is my third challenge since March 2015 when Hubby and I signed up as distributors for the discount.   Last year I lost a total of 18 pounds and dropped a full pants size + (12's were tight on me in January 2015, now 10's are loose and I can wear 8's but I'm not comfortable in them yet.)

Today I weighed myself and I have lost another 3 pounds, 1 inch on my waist (which means the 8's probably actually fit me now, 3/4 inch on my hips, and 1/2 inch on each of my thighs.   

I cannot express how much I love the Advocare products and how glad I am that hubby and I have found a program that works for both of us.   The food lines up with my normal eating habits, (with the exception of cutting some of my sugary-food-vices) and has really taught hubby the importance of a balanced diet and helped expose him to a better idea of what healthy food really is verse "healthy" frozen dinners and ranch dressing.   He is now truly 60+ pounds lighter than he was at this time last year and for the first time in our relationship he has lost the weight at a safe rate and continued to loose without massive rebounds.   I am so proud of him and so excited to see where we end up.  If you had told me 4 years ago he would be at this point and I would be ok with him continuing to lose weight without looking like someone who is terminally ill I would have laughed...I am amazed by the difference losing weight the right way has had in his appearance.   

We have started going to hot yoga, (we had 1 month unlimited groupons) and when the month is over we are going to start working with weights.  Hubby is also training for a marathon (it will probably be in the fall) and we are going to do the same 5k we did last year in May so I'm going to start using the elliptical more regularly until the weather gets a little nicer then I will start C25K again running to the park down the street.  My goal will be to beat last years time of 38 minutes (wish me luck!)

That's all for now.  I hope you are enjoying the fun 24-day challenge friendly recipes!!!

Balance your Checkbook

Am I the only person in America under 50 who still balances a checkbook?   I recently discovered that not only do my friends not carry their checkbooks, I knew this, everyone uses debit and credit cards.  No one writes checks any more that’s what online bill pay is for.   However I was shocked to discover that the majority of my friends don’t even BALANCE their checkbooks.  Despite, or perhaps because of, direct deposit, automatic bill pay, automatic savings transfers etc my friends have no clue what the actual balance in their checking accounts are, and these aren’t people like my husband who, admittedly has a different approach to personal finances than I do (he also spends less than me so…) but other accountants, people with CPA’s, MBA’s, CFA’s and other letters behind their names.

Perhaps working with money all day every day has made them not care?

What do you think? Do you balance your checkbook? Do you know your current bank balance?

Four Days!

In my short time as a milspouse I have learned that countdowns are always looming...everyone is constantly counting down to something, days until the next deployment, days until this deployment is over, days until we PCS, days until we get out!  It seems like everyone has a ticker somewhere counting down.
A few days ago I was talking to a friend and mentioned that I really wanted last week to hurry up and be over with because I get to go visit Adam this week.  She asked me if I ever feel like I am wishing my life away by constantly counting down for the next event.  Since Adam enlisted I have counted down:

Days until he moved to Louisville temporarily

Days until he left for boot camp

Days until graduation

Days until A-School was over

Days until he went to Norfolk

Days until I could visit the first time

Days until I can visit this week

AND I am already counting

Days until the boat Christmas Party

Days until the boat leaves the shipyard

Days until the boat is deployable for humanitiarian efforts

Days until the boat is rumored to deploy

Days until Adam can strike for a rate

The list goes on and on.  Her question really got me thinking though. Am I really wishing my life away?  I don't think so.  If anything having these constant count downs has made me appreciate the days more.  Plus is it really any different from before he enlisted?  Then I was counting down days until the weekend, Christmas, trips to visit grandma, graduation, my birthday...Now I am just counting down different things. 

Needless to say my current counter is down to four days!  Thursday after work I get to head to Norfolk for a long weekend with my husband.  Yes he has to work but at least I get to spend every night with him and a couple of days full of sun, sand, and laughter. :)


PS-Have you entered my giveaway? It ends next week!

Crazy Days

OMG...What a crazy day! 

This afternoon my realtor had some free time (he is one of my best friends husbands) and went by my house in Louisville to make a list of the things I need to do now that the tenant had moved out (who is another friend)to get the house ready to sell.  I am absolutely pissed! How in the WORLD can someone who claims to be a friend leave such disarray in my home when I am trying to sell it?????????

His lease ended May 1, he moved into a new place April 28th.  He should have been out of my house by now!  I knew the realtor was going over this week to make the list and had told our friend this.  The friend said that the upstairs was empty last week when I talked to him and that he still had some stuff in the basement he wanted to sort through so that he wasn't paying to store stuff he didn't want.  Which I was fine with because I knew the upstairs would need a little bit of work done before we could list the house. 

When the realtor got to the house the alarm had been set.  My friend did not use the alarm the entire time he lived there so it did not occur to me to give the realtor the alarm code.  My friend was still listed as the first person for the alarm company to call before dispatching the police.  When they called him he told them he had no clue who was there and to send the police...HE KNEW THE REALTOR WOULD BE THERE THIS WEEK!!!!! WTH!!!! So I call the alarm company tell them to remove him from the account and get it put back in my name.  The call to stop the dispatch but the cops were already on my street so they stopped anyway.  The cop started laughing when he saw the realtor signs on our realtors truck and him locking the door behind him with nothing except a clipboard in his hands :)   Turns out the cop is getting ready to move and needed a realtor YAY my friend has a new client wanting to look in a fairly high-end part of town.  Hopefully this means he will make enough off of the cop's house to make up for the fact that he is helping me soooo much with this house and it is worth peanuts.
After all of this I get a text from the Realtors wife.  She said "Realtor just got home, he was going to call you but wants you to call him after you are home and in a place where it is safe to scream."  My only response was FUCK.  For those of you who don't know me I don't use that word very often, and when I do it is in more of a lighthearted fashion...my girlfriend knew I was pissed and apparently started laughing when she got my text. 

So I came home and called the realtor and my wonderful friend Laney came and got the puppies and took them to the dog park for me so I could concentrate on being pissed off.  Here is the damage:
Upstairs still has a lot of little stuff, a large china cabinet, kitchen stuff, oh yeah and 2 bags of trash in the kitchen that is full of bugs....WTH! BUGS!!!!  The two rooms with carpet will probably have to have the carpet replaced.  There is so much dog hair he couldn't even see the floor he is pretty sure that it is ground into the carpet and probably won't come up :(  Luckily there is decent hardwood under the carpet so we can sand the floors and polyurethane them when we do the living room.  I'm also going to have to paint the entire upstairs, I was expecting to have to paint 1 bedroom, the living room, and maybe the kitchen but the kitchen is a most definitely and the bedroom I thought would be OK has all sorts of marks on the wall from furniture banging into it.  Marks that weren't there 6 months ago. 

Now for the basement--There is so much shit in the basement that the realtor didn't even leave the stairwell...our friend has more shit in the basement than we did...

Last of all the yard--There is dog shit everywhere and the grass is almost knee high in the back yard.  For those of you who live under rocks the Kentucky Derby was on Saturday, for those of you who aren't from the Louisville area the Derby is a HUGE deal in Louisville, this is the city's time to shine.  Because of all of the attention that the city draws the metro government goes crazy on making sure everything looks nice.  I am lucky that I don't have a $200-$500 fine on my hands for the yard not being mowed...I can only assume that from the road you can't tell how bad the back yard is.  It should have been mowed 3-5 times since the last time he mowed...that is not acceptable!
So I got off of the phone with my realtor, drank a glass of water, counted to ten and called my friend.  I told him "you HAVE to mow the yard tonight!" he said "It's not bad but it does need it I was going to take care of it tonight"  I thought NOT BAD! my realtor had no reason to exaggerate about the yard...I'm pretty sure it's at least over your shins...but I just bit my tongue and said "the city has been issuing fines lately and they can be as much as $500, mow it tonight or if I get one you're paying it."  He said it would be done tonight and that he still had a "couple of things" upstairs that he was getting out tonight.  I almost died...a couple of things...SERIOUSLY there is still furniture upstairs!!!!
He did explain the basement at least...Next week is bulk junk pickup for my neighborhood.  He has a couple of old couches in the basement that he needs to get rid of so he is going to start leaving stuff on the curb to have hauled off...which I am fine with...I gave him until Monday to have everything out of the house and has to run the vacuum well in both bedrooms before he moves out.  I will be there next week and expect it to be clean so that I can finish cleaning it.  I am considering driving up there on Saturday after the 5K to see how bad it really is/get started on the stuff necessary to get the house ready to sell...maybe tape off the ceiling etc. to paint and if it isn't too bad maybe even get the floors sanded and ready to polyurethane over.  It wouldn't be my smartest decision but I think it might be the best idea.  The sooner everything is done the sooner it can get listed. 

THEN--I got off of the phone without screaming or calling my friend a liar, went to the dog park to get the puppies and came home and went for a run.  About 1/2 way through the run I got this super sharp pain in my abdomen that was so bad I almost hit the ground.  I stopped moving until it got bearable then walked back to the apt.  I was scared to death it was my appendix (and it may be but I highly doubt it) I have a history of small ovarian cysts which rupture from time to time.  I haven't had one rupture in about 4 years and had forgotten how bad it hurt but  the pain has gone mostly away so I am sure that it was a cyst and not my appendix.  On the bright side it did make me read my TriCare paperwork so that I could look up where I need to go to the doctor/er if necessary :) 

Now I am sitting here complaining to the blogosphere I apologize for venting to all of you!  Thanks for listening :)

You're too happy?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

I am absolutely appalled! I got sick yesterday, nothing big--I thought it was something I ate, turns out it must have been a small bug because my boss got sick today with the same type of stuff going on.  Less than 5 minutes after our boss left my coworker walks in my office and tells me she is going home.  I came into work today at noon because I was up most of the night sick to my stomach.  What did I learn?  I learned that if everyone else gets to be sick today so should I!  WTH???????

I do not understand the selfish rude behavior that my coworker exemplifies!  She isn't a mean person per-se, if she was I wouldn't put up with it. but I do not understand how she thinks that some of the things she says/does are ok!

She is flat out mean to her roommate.  And extremely demanding.   Her roommate is a good friend of mine.  We will be out at the dog park or getting ice cream and my coworker will call and ask her to pick up milk or toilet paper or whatever.  Not a big deal every now and then but it is constant.  My friend will be home with nothing exciting to do and the coworker will give her a laundry list of chores--chores I might add that my coworker won't do or neglects until my friend does them like emptying the dishwasher.

My friend is dating a really nice guy.  I like him a lot and enjoy hanging out with him.  I think he and hubby will get along well too.  They are pretty serious and she has said on more than one occasion that she would not be surprised if they end up married.  He makes her super happy and you can tell when he is around she is less stressed.  These are things I want my friends to experience.  I want my friends to be happy!  Last night my coworker told my friend she doesn't like the BF being around all the time because he makes my friend "too happy."  What?!?!?!?! excuse me, how can someone be too happy!   Jealous much!!!

I am biting my tongue because it is none of my business and it would be out of place for me to tell my coworker she is wrong when this isn't happening in front of me but God help her if it does happen when I am in the room.  Am I out of place for telling my friend that she deserves to be treated nicer and that she needs to try and find a place she can live without the coworker when their lease is up?  I have actually thought about sharing an apartment with her but since I don't have hubby's orders yet/know where I will be a year from now I don't want to leave her without a roommate before she is ready to be :( 

Sorry about that I just really needed to vent.  Normally I vent to the hubby but since he isn't here the blogger world is getting it.  I have scheduled this post to publish while I should be at dinner celebrating Cinco de Mayo with the two of them, if the coworker even comes, hopefully venting to the blogosphere will help me keep my mouth shut if necessary.

Tomorrow is Military Spouse Appreciation Day.  Please feel free to shower me with gifts or send me flowers :)  Or if you think I'm a little self absorbed and self righteous and don't deserve that many gifts and flowers :(  at the very lease try to show appreciation to the milspouses around you--even if you are one, thank your friends for their service as well.