Time Changes

It's hard to believe that last Easter weekend I was going through a miscarriage and my friend/ex-boyfriend committed suicide.  Although it was a tragic weekend, it was also one of the best weekends of my life.  That may sound odd considering the grief that surrounded that Easter, but we also had one of the best weekends ever.  We attended the White House Easter Egg Roll with my cousin Katheryn.   We also got to spend parts of the weekend with my other cousins, Katie and Devon and Devon's fiance Connor as well as going to the National Zoo with our dear Air Force friends, the Beach's (check out Ali's blog).  We also saw other awesome military friends, the Early's.  In the midst of heartbreak, it is still possible to appreciate and enjoy life.

It's amazing the changes that can occur in a year.  Right now I'm 33 weeks pregnant and 6 weeks away from having our newest addition Elizabeth.  This Easter we also got to enjoy Emma really getting into coloring and hunting for Easter eggs.  We saw how truly grown up she is getting when we took her to the playground today after a delicious Easter brunch and she was able to climb up and down and slide and run all over.  Her language skills are amazing to us and she uses full sentences and the appropriate pronouns.  

Although Paul tried to hurt himself and Emma going down a tall, fast slide (how I wish I had my video camera out) by tripping as he came off the slide and doing a full forward flip holding onto Emma (he may have been trying to put me into labor) we had a great time at the playground.  I may burst into hysterical tears if we have any more snow because we have had a NICE weekend.  

And hopefully next Easter we will all be healthy and happy and maybe we'll get to take both girls back to the White House Easter Egg Roll (hint, hint Katheryn).  

Surprise Part Deux

Paul arrived home from Colorado today and, being the good wife that I am, Em and I braved the cold and rain to go pick him up at the airport.  I even decided to be extra sweet and park the car so we could go inside and wait.  Of course I can never time anything perfectly so we had a little bit of time to kill.  Apparently landed and at gate are 2 totally different things that can span 30 minutes of time. 

As we were waiting and watching the people coming off the escalator finally we saw Paul AND HE WAS TALKING TO A HOT GIRL!  Um, what!  I wasn't sure what to do and thought this feels awkward.  I actually thought about moving so he couldn't see us.  Crazy pregnancy hormones. 

So, him and this girl come through the security door and start to walk towards me and I'm just staring at her and she's staring at me and she says to Paul, "Does she not recognize me?" and then I realize it's my friend Emily!  Holy shit! 

All I could do was hug her and laugh.  Apparently her and Paul cooked up this scheme for a surprise visit and, unlike some of my other friends who will remain nameless-cough Cory and Brian cough-both kept it a total secret.  I was surprised!  After I got over thinking Paul met some hoochie on the airplane of course.  

Now it totally makes sense why Paul asked me if the sheets in the guest room were clean (which he's NEVER asked me before EVER) and not to plan anything for this weekend.  Oh the little sneaks!

Not Glamping

We just got back from Buffalo. Paul had to take a week of leave so we decided about a month ago to drive up to Buffalo to surprise my bestie and then spend a couple days in Toronto. It was about an 8 hour car ride, but thanks to the magic of the DVD player and the fact that who the heck wants to drive to Buffalo from Boston it was a surprisingly easy trip. Oh, we've gotten so old with our mini van, with a cooler of lunch stuff, and a dvd player. If only we'd had the luggage rack packed then our trip to old age would've been complete.

Of course I had worked out this whole trip with Cory's hubby who, on the morning of our arrival, told their 3 year old. Word to the wise..if you ever want to keep something a secret then don't tell it to a 3 year old. Abs spilled the beans when Cory picked her up from daycare so she wasn't super surprised to see us there (and Paul thought I'd be the one to crack).

Toronto was fun. We went to Center Island and I wished I had done more research on it before we got there. I definitely recommend it, would go back, but I'd bring our bathing suits and a cooler lunch. There's also a nude beach there if you are so inclined (I totally would be all about a nude beach!). We had an amazing dinner a few blocks from our hotel. The next day we toured Casa Loma. As there is no air condition and it was humid and rainy I'd suggest seeing Casa Loma on a cooler day.

We headed back to Buffalo for the weekend. Friday we went to the Anchor Bar for lunch. Home of the original chicken wing and yet so many restaurants have done them better. Paul wanted to check it off his bucket list though so off we went. No reason to ever go back. lol

Saturday (the part of the story y'all have been waiting for if you know me personally) was camping. Neither Paul or I had ever been camping before. Sure there was one drunken night sleeping in a tent on an island in college, but that hardly counts. We borrowed a tent from Brian and Cory's friends who also were camping with us. They were like professional campers. Paul and I were like National Lampoons. Where was my glamping cabin, my shower, my flat screen tv, my fridge? We stared at the cabins across the way longingly.

Now before you imagine us hiking into the wilderness and setting up camp I'll just let you know that we had the kiddos with us. And I'm afraid of the wilderness. (Crazy people live in the woods. Haven't you seen Deliverance or Wrong Turn???) We got to the privately owned park next to Brian's dad's house in the early afternoon. We set up camp aka unpacked the truck and broke out the cocktails. There is one thing I am certain of...camping should NEVER occur without cocktails. The afternoon consisted of sitting around the fire, entertaining the kids, swimming in the pool. It was pretty relaxing and a lot of fun. And of course there were hotdogs grilled over the fire and s'mores. I heart s'mores! And something I'd never had before called Texas Caviar. Oh heavenly goodness! Let me know if you want the recipe. You won't regret it!

I was worried Em would not sleep very well. It took about an hour for her to fall asleep and Paul hung out in the tent with her until she was asleep. She slept like a rock!

Paul went to bed about 10:30pm. Around 11:30pm Cory's daughter started screaming. We think she was having a night terror because they had a very hard time soothing her and getting her to calm down. Poor kid. It was awful to listen to and I felt so bad for her and them. Seeing as Cory and Brian were busy with Abs I decided to head to bed just as Paul came out to use the restroom. I sat next to the fire waiting for him and waiting and waiting. It felt like forever before he got back. It took so long I was getting worried! He wasn't wearing his glasses and missed the path to the bathroom and kept walking. lol

The bathrooms were super nice! Very long cabin-esque. They looked brand new and no scary spiders!

I thought I'd sleep well. It'd gotten cooler out and the sounds of the night and all that. hahahaha First off, we had filled up the air mattress earlier in the evening and not again so by the time I went to bed it was pretty saggy (given that the air had cooled off a lot). I had to cling to the edge to keep from rolling into Paul. He was still awake by the way.

Around 1:30am poor Abby woke up screaming again. It was awful, but at the same time we did laugh when the coyotes started howling in response. This time Cory, Abby, and Brian headed home. I then had to use the restroom and my potty partner had just left! I braved the walk to the very nice bathroom and raced back to the tent. I was afraid the coyotes were going to come looking for Abby and find me instead!

I think I finally fell asleep after 2am. No relaxing night of sleep for me. I was freezing, I was worried about Emma being cold, I was clinging to the edge of the air mattress for my life, my list of complaints went on and on. At 7am I woke to find Em still sleeping and I thought "Yes!" until someone's car alarm woke up. Emma sprang up saying "car, car." Sigh. No more sleeping for us. My eyes felt like they had sand in them.

Luckily, Brian and Cory brought back coffee and donuts and they were delicious!

I thought I'd nap Sunday or at least go to bed early, but the 4 of us stayed up talking until almost midnight. Monday we drove home and didn't hit any traffic (because, ya know, we were driving from Buffalo to Boston).

I miss my bestie already!

The Weekend Update

We had quite the busy weekend. I can't believe how quickly our little Emma Bean is growing up. She finally is very interested in walking and has made tons of progress this weekend walking independently. And her interest in the world around her is amazing. She is so nosy!

Friday we went to a picnic on base. Holy hotness! It was in the tennis bubble and it was boiling! Paul had to stay and clean up afterwards so Em and I went to pick up our free federal parks pass and then sat in the swagger wagon, drinking smoothies, and watching Sex and the City.

I realized, as we watched the Sex and the City movie, that we are now in the phase of we have to watch what we say, do, and see. There was a very brief scene where Miranda and Steve are having sex. You don't really see anything, but there was some moaning and what not. When the scene ended Emma looked at me and starting making panting noises. And then she spent the next 5 minutes walking around the van, making panting noises. I'll admit I laughed, but she was just so funny!

Paul took Em home while I went to an appointment and I got this pic on my phone. Paul stopped by a park that we hadn't been to before and they had a great area for little kids (we went again this morning, too).



Saturday morning we woke up and went to The Home Depot with Paul. For the first time we put Em in the fun cart where she could face forward and "drive." She thought it was fantastic as you can see by her expression. Of course it's like pushing a bus, but at least she had a good time.

After Home Depot it was home for a nap. Em fell asleep in the car and actually stayed asleep being carried up to her crib. Miracle of all miracles!

After she woke up from her nap it was time for the birthday party! It was for beautiful and smart 2 year old Adrianna and it was at the Little Gym. I was super excited to take Em there because I knew she'd have a good time. It's kind of like a mini gymnastics place and they have kiddie tumbling, gymnastics, movement classes, etc.

I know this picture isn't very good, but you can see that Em is NOT having a good time at all. haha I have never seen this girl move so much! There was so much to climb on, see, do, scarves, balls, a bouncey runway...You could tell Em was thinking how much she loves birthday parties!

And this was all before they brought out the cupcakes. I think of all the kids there Em enjoyed her cupcake the most. And she was NOT sharing! No ma'am. I think she finished the whole cupcake in under 5 minutes. Our little piglet. That's watermelon in her other hand so at least she had something healthy.



For some reason Em is not into baths right now so you can imagine how fun it was trying to clean her up after all this.

This morning, since it was my morning to get up with her, Em decided 5am was the time to wake up. I tried to get her to lay back down with us, but I guess she's too big. She still likes to cuddle, but unless she isn't feeling well she so does not want to lay back down in the morning. We finally got out of bed around 6am and by 6:25am were on our way to the gas station to gas up the swagger wagon. The first station we went to was closed, but luckily another station was close since I had no gas. Then we went for donuts and got there 20 minutes before they opened. Oops! I put a kid friendly movie into the dvd player and we hung out until they opened the drive through.

When Paul finally got up (at 9am!) we watched Joel Osteen, went to the park, and went out to lunch with our friend Rebekah at Outback. Delicious!

All in all a busy and fun family weekend!

Glamping

For my fellow RHOC fans you probably saw the glamping episode...for those of you with better taste in television, glamping is glamorous camping. On RHOC (or Real Housewives of Orange County if you don't watch reality television) the ladies went glamping. I thought this seemed like a fabulous idea and so I planned a girl's overnight glamping trip. Let's compare our trip the the one the RHOC went on.

I'll start with the RHOC. They stayed in these beautiful cabins that looked like 5 star hotel rooms. They actually may have been at a 5 star hotel camping. They sat around the fire and drank wine and cooked fish and what not over the fire.

Our trip was a little bit different. I'm sure their cabin was several hundreds of dollars per night. Our trip not so much. Instead of a resort we stayed at a KOA campground in Maine. It was about an hour and a half from our house.

This is how the trip was supposed to go in my head...we'd drive up to ME, stopping for lunch somewhere cute and seafoody, do a little shopping, and head to the KOA. We'd get there, unload the car, uncork the wine, start a fire, and sit around the fire, drinking wine, eating s'mores, and gossiping all night. The weather would be gorgeous.

Instead the forecast called for rain starting Friday. The rest of our gang was going to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings so we decided to crash that party and leave for glamping from there as it was POURING. Not just a little rain, but a monsoon. We have hardly had any rain this spring because apparently God was saving it all up for this weekend.

We left to head up to ME. Danielle, Sarah, and I rode up together while Rebekah was driving up later. Of course we stopped at the first Starbucks we saw and then again stopped at the Maine welcome center (keep in mind that our total driving time was an hour and 30 minutes and we've stopped twice).

It was still pouring when we got to ME (duh) so our leisurely unpacking of the car turned into a mad dash of hauling everything as fast as possible into the cabin. The cabin was super nice...not 5 star nice, but definitely impressive. The cabin had 2 bedrooms, a full bath, kitchen, and living area and came with 2 flat screen tvs and cable.
We had no plans on seafood dinner, but instead classed it up with some hotdogs cooked in a frying pan on the stove followed by some microwave s'mores. There was indeed wine, but instead of drinking around the fire we drank while we played Yahtzee and watched some movie on the comedy channel. There was a lot of conversations about Sasquatch. I mean a lot. As in had an escape plan in place just in case (this plan involved sacrificing Danielle).

We walked in the rain, ate breakfast at the Merry Moose in the rain, hiked (ok, it was like a 5 minute walk) to a waterfall in the rain, took lots of pictures in the rain, and drove home in the rain. Rebekah swore there was an awesome little Italian restaurant on our way home...turns out it was closed, but we did get some dang good pizza at another place (I actually ate the leftovers for lunch today which I never do). And we planned a return trip including the hubster, baby, and rest of the gang for later this summer.

All in all it was a great glamping trip...good friends, wine, and lots of laugh. What more could we ask for.

Sometimes even though you might not get what you planned, what you do end up with is pretty awesome.

Feel Good Fridays--Friendship

I love linking up to other people's blogs and thought I'd start hosting my own link ups. I wanted something I could do weekly, but also something that jives with how I try to live my life while helping connect others who might feel the same so I came up with Feel Good Fridays. This is a place to post something that makes you feel good in your life and our first Friday link up is about friendship.

I used to work in a high school for pregnant and parenting teens. Loved it. Was devastated when my position was cut although it did free me up to move to GA with Paul, get married, have a baby, etc. The one thing that always broke my heart was that the girls NEVER had any female friendships. If anything they had frenemies and I constantly heard them talking about how this girl back stabbed this girl, or slept with this one's boyfriend, etc. They saw no value in female friendship. Myself, on the other hand, see immense value in female friendship. It's something I pride myself on...having long term friends. For the most part, if you and I are friends then we are friends for life. We may not talk every day, but when we see each other it's like no time has passed. And I've also learned the value of letting go of those friendships that may be aren't the best for me for whatever reason.

This week I wanted to high light some of my amazing friends and I hope you'll do the same in the link up. How often do we brag about the friends that we have. We may assume they know how much we love them, but how often do we tell them? And in the interest of space this is going to be a short list out of a much greater list. I have too many female friends that I love to list them all here unfortunately.

Kristy B--Kristy and I went to elementary, middle, and high school together. We were in the same Brownie troop in 2nd/3rd grade, but did not get along until our 4th grade math teacher made us sit together. Ugh, right? It was the best thing that ever happened to me! We became instant best friends and spent the next 7 years of our lives glued to each other's sides. We drifted apart some in high school and then found our way back to each other in college and that's sort of been how we roll. We may not talk often, but we are still friends and when I was down in Florida last fall I probably saw Kristy more than any of my other friends. Her and her husband are amazing people and I feel so blessed and lucky that we have maintained our friendship after all these years. Almost 30 years of friendship. Crazy.

High school--Jen C, Amanda, Katie, Cory (among others) were my loves in high school. We were inseparable. Jen and I were the wild ones and we drug everyone else with us. Lots of adventures, many that I can't remember, and we still all talk and call each other friend to this day. Katie and Cory were just here with their daughters (wishing Jen and Amanda could've come as well) and we can't wait to see each other again.

My 20's--Melissa, Jen T, and Mary were my single partners in crime, along with my sister Karin, in our 20's. We went out every weekend. Every single weekend. We met boys, we had cocktails, we had sleepovers (yes, girls in their 20's still do that although maybe it's more someone is too drunk to drive home lol). I think about those days a lot. Melissa and Mary are both married now and Jen is going to be my sister wife in a few years. I wish we all lived in the same place so that we could grow our friendships as married couples, but I am happy that we still occasionally get to see each other. Mary let Em and I stay with her when we drove up to Baltimore to pick Paul up. And she even drove an hour and a half to come to the airport with us when he arrived home from Afghanistan. Even though we don't talk often I think about these 3 almost daily.

Valdosta, GA--When I moved to Valdosta to live with Paul to say I HATED it and was homesick would've been an understatement. I had no friends, no job, and pretty much sat at home all day until I met Emily at a Kappa Delta event. It was friendship love at first sight. Paul always jokes and says that we stalked each other before we went on our first friend date and he may be right. lol But through Emily I met all of the other amazing women I became friends with in GA (Brittany, Anne Marie, Beth Anne, Erika...) and who I'm still good friends with till this day. I only lived in Valdosta for 9 months and yet I became part of a phenomenal group of women. God certainly was smiling on me there and now I'm trying to get my mom to move to Valdosta. I think she'd like it plus it'd give me extra chances to visit. Not sure if we'll ever move back to GA, but I'm trying to convince everyone to move with us to TN. I also have to talk about Chelsea and George. George was Paul's roommate when we met and even though I met Paul right on the heels of him breaking up with another Jen he was dating who was friends with Chelsea and George I'm pretty sure they love me more. Chelsea and George are stationed in Japan right now, but I have my fingers crossed that we end up at the next base together.

I wish I had room to talk about all the amazing people in my life in this post. Of all the thinks I am thankful for friendship is one of the most important to me. I believe when you have good friends you work hard to keep them. I can't wait to read about all your friendships!

Inaugural Girls Weekend Boston 2012

Memorial Day weekend was...wait for it...legendary! So much so that it's taken to me till today to recover and be able to sit down and blog about it. I was exhausted. Plus I had 92 loads of laundry to do.

About a month ago my best friend Cory asked if she could come visit with her daughter Abby, age 3. Love Jetblue for it's cheap flights between Boston and Buffalo...that is something I will definitely miss when we move next year. So then I was talking to another of our best friends from high school, Katie, and she wanted to come visit with her daughter Madison, age 5. She was able to find a cheap flight on Spirit Airlines (I had never even heard of Spirit lol) and our plans were set. Of course I wanted to keep Katie's visit a surprise for Cory, but Katie was too excited and put it on Facebook immediately that she was coming. And of course I immediately got a text from Cory saying please tell her that Katie was coming the same weekend as her. lol

The big weekend was finally upon us. I picked Cory and Abby up at the airport Friday at 4:30pm. Of course driving there I noticed all the traffic building up in the return direction. Yay rush hour! The traffic gods were smiling upon us because it was clear when we left the airport and we made it back in record time. Katie and Madison took the red eye and I got up at 5:15am Saturday morning to pick them up at 6am. You know you love someone when you get up at 5:15am to pick them up from the airport.

After a sugar filled breakfast of the best muffins ever and copious amounts of coffee we headed into Boston for some sight seeing. Cory believed we saw all of Boston, but we didn't even venture out of the Quincy Market/North End areas. We enjoyed a Quincy Market picnic lunch in Christopher Columbus park, followed by walking, harbor seals at the aquarium, Mike's Pastry...oh, and the rudest waitress I have ever encountered. Paul got to play babysitter, along with a large group of homeless people, in the park while we went and grabbed lunch.

We wanted to stop at the Bell and Hand for a beer, but it was super crowded so we went into The Point instead. We found a table in the corner and were able to get strollers of sleeping kids tucked in around us. The waitress came over to take our order and seemed immediately put out. She was so rude that I will A) never go back there, B) asked to speak to a manager. They didn't have one there, but I did tell another employee that when your waitress complains she didn't get a tip you can tell her that my tip is to be nicer to her customers. And for the first time IN MY LIFE I didn't leave a tip and no one else did either.

After that we headed towards Mike's Pastry and then home. Yum, yum, yum. After Mike's Pastry we stopped by the fire station. Abby was asked if she wanted to get in the truck and she said no, but I was all over it! They even let me turn on the lights and sirens!

I made Mexican for dinner and then it was on to wine. I also got to go to the Abby and Madison school of hair design.

Sunday was sleeping in...well, for those of us that don't have kids that get up at 6:30am. Emma doesn't really get weekends. Katie and I went to get delicious donuts and coffee (always with the coffee). We then got ready for a cook out. Paul was on dog poop patrol and I cleaned off, for the second time--stupid pollen, the tables and chairs. We filled up the kiddie pool for the kids and then guests started arriving.

What happens when 3 friends from high school who haven't seen each other in a long time start drinking wine outdoors? Redneck slip and slide of course! Followed by a dip in our pool. haha

Sunday night we sat around the fire and reminisced. Oh and we also drunk dialed our friend Amanda back in Florida. I'm sure she appreciated that.

After staying up much too late and having to get up much too early, Monday morning we headed back into Boston. Katie was obsessed with riding the subway, among the list of 900 other things she wanted to do while she was here, so we took the subway to the Children's Museum. Look at our big girl riding the subway like a pro!

Emma loved the 0-3 play area, as did Paul, and we stayed there pretty much the entire time while Katie and Cory explored the rest of the museum with their kids. Everyone was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as we left the museum. Well, the kids did at least. I felt like I could have.

After the Children's Museum we stopped by the Cheers bar for some cocktails and appetizers and to fortify ourselves for the walk back to the car...why, oh why, did I wear flip flops and a dress? The breeze was a little chilly and flip flops are NOT made for long walks. It was Memorial Day and they had a beautiful display in honor of the fallen soldiers from MA. It was truly breathtaking to see so many flags and there were tons of people out taking pictures.

And as Abby and I have the same size bladder, that of a 3 year old, we had to stop at the Burger King to use the restroom.

Monday night was another late night involving lots of wine and junk food. I was sooo tired on Tuesday. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. Em fell asleep in the car and she was so confused when she woke up on the way home from the airport. It was funny to watch her peaking over the side of her car seat looking around for everyone. Paul got a LOT of use out of his man cave this weekend. It actually may be the most time he's spent down there in over a year. haha It was good preparation for this fall's football season.

And I just included this pic because I think it's so cute to watch her climb in and out of her bumbo on her own now. She loves it now more than when she needed it to sit up. lol

New Friends

Kellys Korner Blog (http://kellyskornerblog.com/ why can't I get my blog to post links the correct way????) had a post yesterday on making friends as an adult. I admit that in my 20's most of my new adult friends were people I met at work. The other were people I met through Kappa Delta.

Now that I am no longer working the majority of new friends are people I meet through the Air Force. I LOVE our Air Force family and I am already so sad that we are pcs'ing (aka moving) next year and I hope we get stationed with some of our MA Air Force family (unlikely, but fingers crossed). Don't get me wrong...I do NOT like MA. Yes, living outside the birthplace of our nation is pretty cool, but all the rules and taxes and laws are enough to make me register Republican.

Kelly has blogged about meeting some of her closest friends from blogging. I would freaking LOVE to have a close friend that I met through blogging. That just seems so cool to me (of course I am a big nerd, too).

My name is Jenn. I'm an Air Force wife. I'm a mother and I blog. My friends mean the world to me and I think I'm pretty cool. And funny. Wanna be friends?

It's Just One of Those Days

Our day started super early. Okay, it started regular time for Paul, 30 minutes early for Emma, and 45 minutes early for me. Em has had this weird dry patch of skin that we couldn't get cleared up so I wanted the pedi to look at it and since she got sick over the weekend today seemed like the perfect early morning for a 7:40am appointment. Yikes! Luckily the base clinic has a yummy bagel and coffee kiosk so I sacrificed my breakfast at home to support the economy and buy an everything bagel with olive pimento cream cheese and a large french vanilla coffee. Heavenly!

Turns out Em just has a bug, which we suspect, and a slight touch of eczema for which we got a prescription cream.

After the pedi we dropped Paul's laundry off at the bx (base exchange) dry cleaner and ran into our friend Corey. He was meeting our friend Cody for breakfast and before Cody saw me I snuck up behind him and gave him a wet willy. Yes, I have the sense of humor of a 3rd grade boy.

Em fell asleep in the van. Thankfully I had planned ahead and had my Nook at the ready for such an event. I have learned my lesson trying to transfer Em into her crib.

So, this is where the day gets better. I had some paperwork I needed get signed by the board of social workers so we drove into the city to get them signed. I parked in the garage and saw that they validated parking (score!), went inside, had to sign in with my drivers license, and proceeded up to the 7th floor. A man came out and I explained while I was there and he asked me to hold on. Apparently the social work woman was out to lunch (it was like 2pm! What!) so he went to ask her supervisor. He then comes back and tells me that I need to leave my papers, that the supervisor wants to run it by their attorney. Excuse me????

Now I'm totally frustrated and head out to my car. I go to pull up to the attendant's booth and hit a pole. Yes, I said hit. It was more like the mini van got stuck on the pole. The attendant came out to guide me into position to get out of the garage. I thank him and then he says "I have to charge you $8." "Oh, I got my ticket validated." "I know. $8 is the validation price. It's $35 without it." $35 for AN HOUR of parking. Are you kidding me????

Em then cried the entire 30 minutes home and then wouldn't take a nap. Serenity now!

But on the other hand how can you be frustrated by a sweet baby who folds her hands together when you tell her its time for prayers.

I told Emma to give Sasha a hug and she crawled over and did this. How sweet is she!

Look at this cute face. Heart.

Sasha apparently also makes a good pillow.

We are looking forward to our good friends Brittany and Corey coming to visit this weekend. We met them when we were living in south GA and the first night Brittany and I went out to dinner there was a tornado. The first night B and C hung out our friend AM texted me a photo of Corey with his arm around Brittany (yes, we are middle schoolers). Last summer they came to keep me company the weekend Paul left for Afghanistan and B made me buy a Coach purse. And they are fierce spoons competitors. So we are very excited to see them this weekend. We def made some good friends in south GA.

And lately I have been obsessed with instragram. Keep in mind I had to google what it was, but since them I've gone picture crazy. You can follow me on instagram at AMilitaryMommy or on twitter @AMilitaryMommy. If you want. If you don't have enough social media in your life already. lol

Super Mario Brothers

If you are of a similar age to me then you can remember vividly the excitement of Nintendo coming out (not all the hundreds of Nintendos that have come out since then, but the original Nintendo). Like me, you probably begged your parents to get you a Nintendo for Christmas, your birthday, just because you were the most awesome kid ever to exist. My parents apparently didn't love me because they never got me one, but my friend Kristy got one and we spent many weekends (okay every weekend) playing Nintendo Super Mario Brothers. And IT. WAS. AWESOME! One of my best memories of childhood (since Kristy and I have been friends since 4th grade and by friends I mean the kind who spent every weekend at her house or mine, went to summer camp together in the summers, worked at the Y together during middle and high school, the together all the time kind).

So, imagine how excited I was when Wii came out with Super Mario Brothers. Of course I had to buy it and 2 additional controllers because if playing with 2 people was fun, playing with 4 people was bound to be legendary. One year later and we finally had friends over last night to play. Of course if Kristy and her hubby would come up and visit it would like old home week playing Nintendo.

Paul and I played a lot of Super Mario Brothers when I was on bedrest (mostly because I was so mind numbingly bored all the time), but when we got home from his deployment/my extended vacation to Florida our friend Andy had Mario up to 64 lives. 64 LIVES! What is that???? Who does that??? Rainman???

Last night I was Mario (duh), Paul was Luigi, Sarah and Andy were the mushrooms. Within 14 minutes I had Mario's lives down from 64 to 24. Yes, I had lost 40 lives in a mere matter of moments. Andy the mushroom, on the other hand, was like a Mario Brothers ninja. There were several games where his mushroom just picked up my Mario and carried him through the game.

There was some cursing (Andy), some crying (me), yelling at Andy (Sarah), walking off cliffs (Paul), and lots of laughter. I mostly held my breath and tried not to pee myself. We are definitely not up to Andy's savant like skills. I mean Sarah and Andy brought their own controllers...these people are serious! It's like someone who brings their own paddle to a ping pong game.

After Mario Brothers, we decided to play Mario Kart. It's really hard. I rocked 12th place most games except in 1 miracle from God game where I finished in 2nd place. I'm not ashamed to say that I did jump up and down screaming in excitement. In one game Andy finished in 11th place and there may have been a controller thrown onto the floor and some extensive cursing.

I'm pretty sure Andy will never play with us again.

Old Friends

The countdown has begun.  We have less than 30 days until Paul will be back in the US!  Of course we are hoping with fingers crossed that he flies into the same city he flew out of because that is where I am planning on picking him up.  lol  With our luck he'll fly back into some totally random city and I'll be stuck driving from FL to New England with an infant by myself.  Oh well.  All the tears and crying (both Em's and mine) on the way home will be worth it to see my love.   I feel like I'm starting to wake up after a long sleep.  Of course part of that may be because Em is sleeping better and I actually got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a row last night. 

I think one of the best parts of my visit to Florida has been catching up with old friends...I'm talking people I haven't seen in over 15 years. 

Jo Ann, Cristin, Kyan, Shayla, Michele, Jenn


This is after many many martinis (mostly drunk by me and the precursor to my month long alcohol hiatus).  We were band nerds in high school (although I don't consider myself a nerd and I will admit that I was the worst flag twirler ever).  Michele--bad influence!  She was the one who taught me how to smoke and convinced me to have sex in high school!  And she's still a bad influence because she made me have a coke when I saw her over the weekend when I was trying to go a month without soda!  Anyway, we had a great time catching up and realized we hadn't seen each other in 17 years!  All of us are moms now which is so weird because when we were together it was like no time had passed at all.  (And I apologize to Shayla for having to endure a drunken ride home with me.  I blame Michele.)

Leah and Ryan with baby Emma

Leah was my college roommate and by extension so was Ryan because they have been together that long.  I love me some Leah and Ryan and always try to see them when I can.  They were nice enough to drive over to our hotel in Orlando for a very lengthy dinner (because our waiter was so slow--he tried to convince us to get the buffet, but we didn't listen.  Not winning).  Em was not sure about Ryan at first (maybe too much resemblance to that mean Santa) and Leah's laugh scared her, but they quickly won her over with their charm and she was fast friends with them by the end of the night. 

Jacob, Jenn, Tracie, Gene

This is part of the group of friends I hung out with when I worked at the Y in college (missing was Mike and Tanya and Sam who had just left and Lisa who has a teething infant).  I loved, loved, loved seeing these people with their kids and seeing what amazing parents they are (which is weird because we were drunk all the time in college).   It was so much fun catching up and talking about all our craziness and laughing about the Y.  When we were all hanging out Tracie's niece was an infant...she is now 15 years old!  I can't believe how much time has gone by and how quickly life is moving.  I probably hung out with these people more than any other group of people I knew during college (even more than my sorority sisters).  To tell you how long we've known each other when we met Jacob and Gene were in high school and I was a freshman in college.  I've been out of college since 1998. 

I love this picture because Isabella and Emma are staring at each other

Hailey, Alex, Isabella, Jenn, Emma, Lisa, Ryleigh (and just out of view was newborn baby Sydney)

I met these wonderful women (and our friend Nichelle) during new employee orientation at the school board.  We are all social workers and it was love at first sight.  At that time Alex was the only one married and none of us had kids.   Having a baby playdate yesterday made me miss living here for the first time (not that I don't miss my other friends every day).  There is something about spending time with good friends who have infants that speaks to my heart. 

There have been so many more friends that we've spent time with since we've been in Florida that I either don't have pictures of or the pictures are on my phone.  Em has made so many new friends in Florida.  She is a lucky little girl.  I can't believe we head home in roughly 3 weeks.  I feel like there are so many people I haven't gotten to see yet.  And I can't believe when we get home that we'll have an 11 month old!  (Em was 4 months when Paul left)  I just can't wait for him to re-meet his daughter and see in person how funny and wonderful she is (and not have to rely on skype).  He is never going to put her down when he first gets home (which works out well for me because I'm tired and I don't want to hold during our flight to the Caribbean haha). 

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their December and not letting the craziness of the holiday season ruin the reason for the season. 

Merry Christmas!