Life, or something like it

Thankful for Thursday

2010-11-11T15:50:00.004-05:00

Today I figure I'd say what I've been thankful for over this past month, since it's gone by so quickly and I haven't said a lot lately.

1. I'm thankful for my son. He's such a great child and I'm very blessed to have him in my life. He's speaking better lately and got the potty training thing down, which has made life a lot easier.
2. I'm thankful for my husband. He's been a trooper helping out while I've been more emotional this past two weeks. He's done a lot for this family and you can bet I've been telling him more and more how much he's appreciated.
3. I'm thankful for my mother. She puts up with me a ton and tolerates me calling no matter what time of day (although I try to do it when I know she's awake) and has been helping me get through my anxiety.
4. I'm thankful for my husband's job. Although I have to admit I dislike some parts of the Navy it has been a very stable job and has been able to support us. Cannot ask for more then that. I only can hope we find the same support when he becomes a civilian in 2 years.

There's more I'm thankful for, of course!! I feel blessed to have the people in my life that I love. It's amazing how time flies so quickly, which is kind of overwhelming since I would love for it to slow down so I can enjoy it more. I really want to get to more of my photos, I've been neglecting them lately. It's been poor weather so we haven't done as much... I'll probably be less active with my photography until after Winter. But, who knows, if I have the opportunity to get out with my family... we will.

I've been absent again

2010-10-16T10:23:00.004-05:00

Life has been kind of busy sometimes and I just cannot seem to balance my time out! It feels like there is too much to do and not enough time in the day. I know I need to learn how to balance my time, make a reasonable to-do list for the day and stick to it. Learn to not be mad if I cannot do it all. How does every one else handle it? I only have one child and cannot imagine doing this routine if I had more then Andrew (which hopefully someday will be a reality). It's frustrating when I say I'll get "this, this and that" done and I hardly get one thing accomplished!

There's spending time with my son (always an important part of my day), working on Zazzle to become a WAHM (not much success but you can read about it at my blog From SAHM to WAHM), spending time with the hubby, necessary cleaning, etc. I told Aldon I should just stay awake doing stuff until midnight then wake up before Andrew to accomplish more. He reminded me then I'd be sleep deprived - which I am not good at being.

So, it's time to find a balance... so I can keep this blog (and my other two) up-to-date and still have a life. :)

Keeping busy

2010-09-04T01:31:00.002-05:00

I apologize that I haven't said much, nor finished my show and tell from our vacation but I've been busy. I've been trying so hard to make designs for zazzle to attempt and make some side money. So far I'm coming up short, but I'm still designing and hoping for luck. My newest thing I've done? Christmas labels!!

Christmas present label by Alittlebitoffun
Create your own labels on zazzle

Zazzle decided to make it so we could make address labels, but why not get personalize Christmas labels instead? Sounded like some fun and I enjoy doing it!! I also made wrapping paper cards, which are kind of cute:

Wrapping Paper by Alittlebitoffun
View more Custom Cards

Can you tell I love holidays? I'm so excited for Christmas. Andrew wants a Woody doll. That's all. He's so cute and I love him so much! He's always questioning when Christmas will come... soon Andrew, very soon.

Our vacation Part #1

2010-08-15T23:54:00.003-05:00

I know, it's been about two weeks since we got back from vacation and I still haven't uploaded photos or anything! I tend to be a slacker when it comes to that! So I'll give you an update on our exciting vacation! And photos as well, aren't I such a doll? I won't do our vacation all at once, considering we were out and about for 2 1/2 weeks so this will probably be limited to the first day... since it's a little late.

I doubt this will show up as big as this thing really is!! I made this photo 11 inches by 7 inches so it's huge! And I should be able print it off at walmart or somewhere near that size for a scrapbook, so it works out well! As always, respect my copyright please! If you see any one else using my photos somewhere please do tell me! Trust me, I'm not going to take it easily if I find them elsewhere and I would hate to have to make my blog private.

Anyway, we took our 6 hour journey from the Bremerton, WA area to Athol, Idaho's theme park Silverwood to see what it was all about. It's a fun place! Aldon and I aren't really theme park kind of people... well, except when it came to Disney World but that's a whole other story! We don't really do rides - so we do other things! We each took our turn and went on the carousel with Andrew, he absolutely loved them! I think if he had his way we'd spend all day riding those. As you can see it was fun trying to catch a picture of kiddo and us when we were going by! It looks cool in the one shot with the blur around them though.

We decided to have lunch, considering we were starved. The place is so huge and even with a map we were lost, but managed to find a place to have essentially pizza and a magic show. It was neat to watch the magic show and Andrew loved it as well. Aldon enjoyed it too, but spoiled it knowing how they pulled everything off. LOL.

Silverwood Theme Park has a huge water theme park attached to it which is where we spent most of the day! I think we spent 2 hours at that part before Andrew wanted to stop (mind you, we left at 5 am that morning and he hasn't had a nap at all). I didn't take any photos of this whole time, since I was brave and wore a swimsuit out in public and joined in the water with Andrew. After we got back in our normal clothes we enjoyed some ice cream and I had to snap a shot of Andrew with ice cream all over his face. So cute!

We wanted to make most of our time there, even though we had a 2 hour drive left to accomplish that night, and decided to do the train ride show they had there. Bandits come and "rob" the train and any money they made out with was donated to a charity. It was enjoyable and Andrew thought it was neat.. the bandit was joking when he told Andrew to come along with her, but he totally was going to listen! Imagine the amusement of everyone around us when I had to tell my son that he wasn't going with them!

Afterward we walked around some, let Andrew ride the toddler roller coaster, then let him play on the tree playground there. Around 6 we called it a day, headed out to eat some food, and then drove 2 hours more and stopped at Aldon's brother's place for the night.

Part 2 and most likely 3 to come in the future!

Somewhat "Wordless" Wednesday

2010-08-11T18:58:00.003-05:00

This is where we spent August 3rd, in Yellowstone National Park checking out geysers! I wish I got to spend more time there, because we only saw probably 1/16 of the place when we got there! This place truly needs a week of time off to see the whole place. Perhaps we'll chose to take husband's leave next time spending it there? That will be in a while, so you never know! I got sun burnt a ton, but thankfully Andrew and Aldon came out not burned. We had a good time there, aside from not getting to be there as long as we would have liked.

On vacation

2010-07-26T13:59:00.003-05:00

If any one wondered why I haven't been around - we've been on vacation and are still enjoying ourselves. We won't be here much longer though, in a few days we go to my husband's family reunion for camping!! I'm nervous seeing as I've never camped in my life. It's been great for us to see family, but in a way I'll be glad when all is done and we're back in our own home.

I started a new blog, for my adventures of becoming a work at home mom. You can see my adventures here: From SAHM to WAHM. If any one else out there is a WAHM or works from home I'd love to know tips or anything else you have to offer. I hope all is doing well!!

Sometimes I love photoshop

2010-07-03T00:51:00.006-05:00

As you can imagine with me trying to make designs for Zazzle I have been using and abusing my photoshop program more. Today I've been trying to learn a few simple things and I got to say it's fun!! So I have got to show off what I've done.
First we'll start with the American flag. You can see it in my post before this - it's the flag I used inside the heart. Well I turned it into a pattern overlay in photoshop. Then I made the word love and used the pattern overlay in it, resulting in:

May not too look a lot but it was fun!! Then I learned a different technique on how to change the color of items - so I decided to do it on a photo of my son. I'll show the original and two fun edits:

The original photo above

And the two fun edits!

I know for some photo editors this is, well, boring to say the least. However for me it was rather fun to test his eye colors out!! I know... overkill, right? But sure was fun!!

Where have I been?

2010-07-01T14:56:00.005-05:00

I've been working hard on zazzle lately and am sorry I haven't been around much! I know I didn't get to do "closetful of crafts" last Friday because I've been trying to design shirts and other items. I'm trying to treat this like a job and stick to it because it can be rewarding in the end. I've always wanted to try something that has an opportunity to make me a WAHM. Nothing too hard, I set my own hours, but get to do something that brings a steady flow of emergency money for us. We'll possibly be needing that extra money too!! My husband hasn't worked on his B.S. and with about two years and five months until we're civilian ridden I'm thinking any extra money will help him in the end, possibly give us a chance to focus more on his education for a while before having to get back to work. That's my goal in two years time is to be able to have saved enough to support us, especially if the economy is still bad by then. Is it doable? Perhaps. I was given responses by some others and if I stick to it I possibly can be able to.

So exactly what have I been doing? Well here's my two store's latest creations:
This I actually created last night - took less than an hour which was good since I got the idea at midnight and couldn't sleep until it was done. That can be found (along with others) at A Little Bit of Fun.

This one (and other awareness) can be found at Tshirts for a Cause.

Obviously I'm no where done on either store front! I've been at it less than a week so it's to be expected. I still have a lot to add and am creating a few other stores in the next couple weeks. I'll be on hiatus for a couple weeks soon, though!! Family reunion so nothing will be done. I might automatically set things to be posted on certain dates, but don't expect too much!!

Memories in Photos Wednesday

2010-06-30T09:52:00.006-05:00

It's always funny looking back at photos of my son. This one was when he was 7 months old. You know how some children are very messy when they eat? My son was never really like that for the longest time, so I decided to make him messy instead. I think his expression is appropriate - he was probably questioning me and my parenting. "Why did you slime baby food on my nose, mom?" No matter what was on his face he still looked so adorable! Good times.

If you're wondering where I've been - I have one word... Zazzle. I've been trying my hand in designing photos over there to upload, which has been nice. It's a challenge in a way but has been nice. Currently working on mostly breast cancer awareness, but have branched off to male breast cancer too. I'm no where near started nor no where near done with all my ideas since I have over 200 different ideas I want to create. If you want to check it out Tshirts for a cause is where you'll find it at. Although it is more then Tshirts, kind of didn't chose my username as good as I should have. Oh well :)

I got myself a new blog name (had to spell it lifeorsumthing like it on the blog site) but when I get things transferred I'll start the process of hopefully getting all my followers over there. That's kind of up to all my followers though! We'll see how it goes. I might wait until after my vacation in July in case.

Closetful of Crafts Friday

2010-06-25T22:55:00.003-05:00

I apologize I failed at crafts today, however I started using photoshop to do different designs for T-shirts. I'll talk about it more tomorrow, when I'm coherent as I'm a tad hot and tired right now.

Using my creative side, a different way...

2010-06-24T07:47:00.002-05:00

I was trying my hand at micro-stock, which unless you're really serious about you make chump change. I didn't have many pictures up, mostly because a good handful of what I put up each time was declined. That never bothered me... or bothered me when I did sell a picture it was only worth $0.25 to me. Until two days ago. We were going out to look for a computer mouse for my husband and I saw a mouse-pad. This mouse-pad had a photo I saw from a ladies micro-stock page that she sold off. And it struck me... this gal probably made maybe $0.25 to $5.00 at max for a photo that some one else used for a mouse-pad that made $8.00 a pop. So it made me really wonder, is my photos worth only $0.25? Is my time worth that? Not really...

So I think I've come set on the fact all micro-stock sites I have joined will be deleted and closed down ASAP. Actually I don't think, I know that's what will happen. I'm thinking of trying to join up with Cafe press or Zazzle and use my creative juices there to use some of my photos and also different sayings that I've come up with on T-shirts and different items. I know they'll be making money off me, but at least it will be me using my photos instead of someone else. At least this way I can do things how I want to, when I want to, and not be so stressed about how my photography is critiqued (getting a tad sick of the "too light, too dark, has some noise, something isn't in focus" aspect of it all. I feel more positive this is the direction for me. Will I make enough to consider it a job? Highly doubtful... but I will settle for $100 extra a month to cover the costs of what I've bought with all my equipment. But more would never hurt. So let the creative juices flow!

Memories in Photos Wednesday

2010-06-23T18:00:00.003-05:00

On 2-28-2010 our family went to Poulsbo, WA to check out the marine science center. It's always neat to see marine life closer - and this was our chance to. The center was definitely not big, but had an area where you could feel marine life (like starfishes) and a lot of other neat things that roam in the ocean. We went into the back where children could color and there was this tank. It had two clown-fish, which looked similar to Marlin and Nemo in "Finding Nemo". There was also a fish that looked like Dory and another fish that looked like the one that said "Bubbles! Bubbles!" I couldn't get pictures of the other two, but was able to take some lovely shots of the clown-fish. They kept hiding in the anemone or behind it but it was a great chance to see how well I could take pictures of fish, as well as neat to observe them.

Doing a poll

2010-06-19T11:13:00.003-05:00

I decided to do a poll with different choices of headers. You can choose multiple ones you like. I'm actually kind of leaning towards "Life, or something like it." It's kind of cute and I've never heard someone use it often. So, what does everyone think? I'd like to make a permanent change to the header. As for a change of blogger address? Not sure, because I'd lose all the followers I have. I'm considering making a new blog with the name used, but don't think all the followers will find me. I guess I'll deal with that in the future.

What should my header be?

Closetful of Crafts Friday

2010-06-19T00:17:00.012-05:00

I've been interested in trying to figure out how to crochet cute flowers after *kimw* showed off the "crochet candy" she makes! They're awesome. So I decided to search the internet for patterns and started testing them out this week. I'll probably show off the ones I did test after I complete more, but wanted to post my own "tutorial". After looking at this one person's pattern, what she did didn't make sense to me! It just wouldn't work. So I decided to make my own tiny flowers. So I apologize, this is my first time giving a tutorial, no less my first time making my own version of something, and also apologize for giving my camera to my husband (had to edit the photos afterward, couldn't get the darkness right). Oh, should I apologize that about my non-manicured hands, too? LOL. Any way, show/tell me your results.

Chain 6
Join with a slip stitch to beginning chain to form a loop.
Chain 3, then do 2 triple crochets into the loop, followed by a single crochet into the loop. Do this a total of four times. The fifth petal you'll chain three, followed by the two triple crochets into the loop and slip stitch it to the bottom (the picture below shows the back, where I slip stitched it not into the next petal, but using one of the loops chains), then pull until tight and cut it apart.

So... how did I do? I hope everyone took into consideration the last time I tried to crochet was probably 3 years ago, and even then I was a beginner!

Blog Hopping, cont. & help requested

2010-06-17T20:17:00.004-05:00

I was a little disappointed in Tuesdays blog hop, I thought I'd get more then two people following me. But, live and move on. I hope to find more people that love my blog and find more blogs I love following. I've found some ones I love (the more creative the better) which is awesome. We'll see what this Friday brings. I will be following those who follow me in and promise I'm going through all those blog hops to find people's blogs that I love! I think I'll limit it to doing the Friday blog hops, so that way Tuesday's will be spent focusing on other things.

I just decided to change my blogger title - I'm still searching for one that is "me". Originally I was "The Good Stuff", but wonder if people didn't like it? Either way, as you can tell I'm trying on "Live. Laugh. Love." but has that been used too much by others? What do people think? If any one can help me figure out a title that covers crafts, photography, and family life I'd appreciate it!

Memories in Photos Wednesday

2010-06-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

Well, there's nothing like a story attached to this photo. Just a beautiful son that I decided to take a picture of in black & white. When he was a baby I swear it was so much easier to get photos of him! Nowadays he gives me evil faces when I try getting pictures, or I have to tell him 100 times to look at the camera and stop the cheesy grin. LOL. Got to love that little guy.

Another old post became new *Added

2010-06-15T20:15:00.000-05:00

The blog post Been Busy... has made it's appearance again. Everything has been watermarked and I added a lot of new photos to it! The Llama is one of them!

It's amazing - the first weekend I had the camera I swear I had my best photos. Doesn't that figure? I'm still learning my camera and haven't taken the time to sit down and read some of the books I got. I'm always the type that rather experiment first, read later. LOL. Perhaps when we decide to visit family next week I'll take the books with.

A lot of time has passed I decided to add some old pictures to. The blog was made in January 2006, a few weeks before I had Andrew. So now you get to see some photos never before posted here - a picture of me at 38 weeks (scary), an ultrasound done when I was 30ish weeks pregnant, and some nursery photos!

Tuesday Tagalong & Follow Me Back

2010-06-15T09:50:00.003-05:00

Figured I'd do it again!! Found some nice blogs in the process last week. How to see many followers, just like me! I promise to add every one who is following me - I'm just a bit behind in life. Why does it seem like the hours pass me by?

Of course I'll be also searching the blogs on their site to see what I like best!! I *love* when I find crafty souls like me. It's awesome :)

Octopus Photo Question!

2010-06-12T10:23:00.012-05:00

I had Stephanie from Ten Talents ask me a question in one of the comments [about my banner pictures] so I figured I'd answer that to whoever else wanted to know!!

Stephanie: You've got a lot of great pics on here! Where did you take the one of the octopus? Did you actually take that yourself?

A. Yes I did take that photo. I haven't posted any photos that I don't own and didn't take in any of my blog posts or in my header. I wanted this blog to represent my life lately - so the only way to do that is to use only pictures I've taken. As for the Octopus picture - I'm giving you the chance to look closer!! It was actually taken in the Seattle Aquarium!! [You can see the reflection of my son's orange jacket and his fingers in the left corner of the photo]. Eventually I'll get the one blog post back up that had those photos in it. It's amazing what you can do with a camera sometimes, isn't it? And that was shockingly one the first weekends with my new camera!! Honestly some of these pictures came from pure luck, trust me on that!

Edited: I forgot I had two octopus pictures up, I apologize! Not from the same location! This one was taken in Poulsbo, WA - they have a marine science center there and that's where this photo was taken at.

If any one has questions they have been wondering, feel free to ask!

Closetful of Crafts Friday?

2010-06-11T08:15:00.003-05:00

I don't think I'll be able keep up with this every Friday, but we'll see. This is actually about what I did yesterday - my first attempt at wire jewelry. Although my husband says it's good, what I did wasn't any where close!! I'll admit, what should I expect? I am just a beginner, no less a wire jewelry virgin, and tried something that was labeled as being intermediate. But it was the only one I could think of doing! And had the least amount of things you used.

This is what the picture showed I should make it look similar to, aside from my colors I used:
As shown in Creative Wire Jewelry by Kathy Peterson Page 40 (Giving credit where credit is due).

Well, this is what I came up with..
I swear I hear silent chuckles. First attempt? Not bad... but I do have some complaints on what she tells you to do! She says to use 20 gauge wiring. Well her picture and mine don't look like the same wiring! Mine is 20 gauge - the picture looks more like the 16 gauge wiring I have! Another complaint is she tells you to use a metal mandrel (the exact one I have) and you make one long coil around it that's wrist size and add 1/2 inch for ease. Well... I did what was said. I did a 7 inch wrap (all the mandrel could hold) which was 1/2 inch more than my 6 1/2 inch wrist. This won't fit it!! She didn't take in for the fact some of us have big hands so fitting it into something, no less wire, is kind of tough. If this fits someone with a 5 inch wrist I'd be shocked. So craft failure yesterday. Not all on my part though.. "decent" for a beginner, though.. right?

Added: I decided to actually edit it a bit again in attempts to make it fit my hand. I decided to pull lightly on the part that makes the wrist band to make it a little bigger. Then I decided to put one more wire piece through it that was longer, curl the sides and then connect them together. By making the one wire piece that went through longer it also allowed for more room.
Here it is now:

I can at least roll it onto my wrist - but of couse it means it's very wiggly and won't stay still. I think I'll be sticking to earrings, rings, bracelets that have a latch, and necklaces!

So which header do you like?

2010-06-10T22:02:00.006-05:00

I've been having fun lately and changed my header around twice today in photoshop. What does every one think? They're small versions, so you'll have to click on the photo to see the bigger view. Just to compare:
This was the original I had on for a month or so now:
Here's the one that lasted all but a few hours today:
And the one you see before you know, the one I'm 100% sure I'll keep:

"Blog Hopping"

2010-06-10T21:21:00.005-05:00

Not quite Friday - but getting a head start blog hopping! I'll probably back off a little next week, never knew there was so many ways to show off your blog.. no less by blog hopping. So here's Fridays I've signed up to:

Want to promise those who have hopped on over to my site and posted I'll be checking you out soon! I'm just trying to find a balance in my life.

Old posts become new again!

2010-06-10T13:20:00.003-05:00

I'm getting my old blogs up slowly!! Got them watermarked (and re-sized for faster uploading times for me) and even added more photos then they had before!

Adventures is up. I also added a new photo of a deer that wasn't on the blog before. The picture to the side is a preview of one of the photos that's on that blog. Some fun memories!! I love looking back over them.

More Memories and you could see the preview on the side!! I took some fun shots of seagulls (out of hundreds only liked 4!!) Used to show two photos, now has my "best" four!

Some More Adventures has quite a bit of photos! I had one photo for each adventure day we had, but decided to add quite a few more!!

I have one more left to put back up online, but want a break! So it will have to wait. Hope you enjoy!

Wanted to add once Linkthis' support helps me, I should be able to show old posts that you might like to see. Neat thing they have!! Hope it gets up and working for me soon. Guess that's what I get for customizing my blog!

Memories in Photos Wednesday

2010-06-09T10:16:00.007-05:00

I think every Wednesday I'll try to do "Memories in Photos" - where I might show one or two old photos and talk about them. So today is my trial day, obviously. I thought it'd be something neat to do when I don't have much to say. We'll see how long it takes until I run out of pictures to post though - although I do have a ton of them! My new camera's folder on my computer has 13,000 photos alone so you can imagine how much that is.. although there's probably over half which I don't like 100% (the anal part of me coming out). Hence why I take about 10-20 photos of the same thing sometimes. LOL. I hope some other photographers admit they do too so I don't feel bad!

Have to say this about my pictures when my son was younger - I had a cruddy camera. Just had to mention that. LOL. Anyway, here we go...

I know how much we love seeing our babies milestones come and go with flying colors. This was one of them. The milestone sheet we were given when he was a baby says by six months they should be sitting up on their own - well by the end of five months (this picture pretty much was the first time) he did it on his own! As you can see, he was so proud (and so were we)! It was so fun to see him get to this point!!

This actually happened shortly after the last photo! He was six months when he quickly went from doing push-ups to doing what can be only described as belly flop crawling. I'd have to show a video someday, in the future. He essentially would drag himself places and while I was working on my husbands quilt (which four years later hasn't been finished) he decided to come over and say hello and hang on to the quilt. It was so cute so I couldn't help taking a few photos of him. I love his baby blues.

So that wraps up Memories in Photos!

Doing another Follower Thing

2010-06-09T07:00:00.004-05:00

I like doing these to see who all follows. Those who have started I'll be checking you out soon!

Sorry I still have a few blog posts down, once I get those watermarks on them they'll be back up and running!

Added: I had to post these!! I decided to buy my husband gladiolus just because today, to hopefully make him feel more appreciated :) They're beautiful.

Does the picture look good? The picture looked too dark when it first came out so I edited it in photoshop to lighten it up. I feel like it makes it gives it more warmth, since it's right in front of the window (which you cannot really see as much as I'd like).

Some of my posts won't show Added More

2010-06-08T12:39:00.002-05:00

For a while some of my posts won't show - I want to protect the pictures more if I can so I'm trying to watermark all pictures I've posted here and then re-post them on the blog they came from so I'm saving a lot of blog pages as a draft until I fix this. I know I can't always protect my work on the internet, but I sure want to try. Especially when some are my son's photos and I know I don't want people claiming my cutie as his own! That and my husband ;)

I also decided to see what Tuesday Tag-Along was all about with tweepoppets blog page. I figured it might get more followers, and maybe I'll meet some people a lot like me :)

I'll also be importing my "Closet Full of Crafts" blog into here. I figured it makes sense to make this all about my family and my hobbies instead of making them individual. I have to find my crafty side again... ever since I got my camera I've been slacking on doing more.

I'm alive

2010-05-30T10:02:00.003-05:00

It's been a long week - to say the least. We tried to make the most of it by going to a Farmer's Market the same day as finding out the dreaded news, and it was good for us. We did have a good time going. I'll talk more about it and add some pictures in the following days.

We decided a few days ago we would by a tree or shrub in memory of all our lost babies. I finally decided on a shrub what's known as an english roseum rhododendron. Try saying that a few times fast! It's going to look beautiful when it blooms, but I'm not sure if we'll be here or not by the time it does since we have 2 1/2 years until we're out of the Navy so probably 2 years until our house is on the market.

Either way, it is something I wanted to do in memory so we had to get our back yard ready. Today, even when the rain was trickling down, all of us were outside working on the yard. Yesterday we weed whacked most of the long grass down and today we actually dug up a tree stump and a lilac stump which weren't where we'll plant the shrub but close to it. Then my husband took the new tiller attachment we got for our new weed whacker (it's a Troy Bilt that you can put 6 different attachments onto it that you have to buy, which is kind of cool) and started using that today. It's not completely done, but we had fun. Kiddo had a blast playing in the back yard, digging and getting dirty. What kid doesn't? It was good to do something outside the house and felt like we accomplished something today.

Other news: I'm starting to try and lose weight again so I'll be adding another blog soon. It's not going to focus on calories or counting them, but since I got a recumbent bike it will focus on how many miles I'm logging in. I'm aiming for something like "From Washington to Idaho" and will figure out how many miles it roughly is and try to accomplish that in a year (or by the end of the year). I'm still working out on the details.

P.S. Any one else notice I've now used two Kenny Chesney songs? "I'm Alive" was not intentional though. Haha.

Grow your wings and fly away

2010-05-22T15:22:00.004-05:00

Dear baby, you were in my womb so briefly but left a lasting impact. Today my spotting turned into bleeding this morning. Just a gush of blood but enough that your father and I went to the hospital to make sure things were okay. The ER doctors didn't have any good news - you measured a week behind still, but had no heart beat any more. You're my third child I have lost and as comforting as it should be, it hurts to know you're with your grandmother now. How I wish I could see my belly grow, hear your heart beat, feel a kick. How I wish I could hold you in my arms. How I wish I could be your comfort. How I wish I could watch you grow. Instead I'm told to keep on trucking. How am I supposed to do that? I planned my life around you and your brothers/sisters. How can I plan a life without you? I loved you from the moment I got a positive pregnancy result and loved you even more when I saw your heart beating away. I miss you.

More fun times

2010-05-17T09:00:00.002-05:00

April 10th we went to Bainbridge Island, WA again. I really love the location, it's got a lot of different areas nearby water. It has scenes of Seattle in the distance, depending where you go and you can find beautiful places to take pictures. That and the area isn't just good for adults but great for children. We started the day at a beach, where I took pictures and my husband and son decided to spend their time on the playground near by. After a while it started getting chilly so we decided to drive around. We found this beach area, where no one could really park near that had the *closest* view of Seattle in the distance. With no where to park, I couldn't exactly have us stop for a photo opportunity. With my husband not having his cell phone, I couldn't have him drop me off for 2-5 minutes either. I was saddened. If you actually look into my husband's sun glasses you can see where our final destination was - a play ground. Probably the best picture I took that day - most of them failed to meet my expectations. Andrew have his fun for quite some time at this play ground, until we decided to walk down the beach a little after ward. By the time all was done it was getting late so we headed out. It's so cute because every time we do an activity like this our son crashes on the way home.

May 10th was "Corey's Day on the Farm" in Silverdale. Andy *loves* going to this!! I'll actually show a few of my pictures from today, since it was a fun filled day with a lot of pictures I loved!! (Sorry won't be showing all of them!!)

First you start with horse rides!! He loves riding on horses. I asked him later if he was going to be a cowboy when he was older and he promptly told me, "yes!!" It's so good seeing him have such a blast and he loves riding all the horses, we probably had him go on 6-8 horse rides during this day!!

Andrew also loved the wagon rides they had. We only went on two rides though - they go around the farm area which only takes probably 4-5 minutes at max but waiting in the line for it always takes some time! The first time we went on the one pulled by a tractor and the second one we went on was pulled by two horses.

I'm sure I could go on about the day! It was definitely a good time and so good seeing Andrew have a great time with the horses. Of course now he wants to go back ASAP and it doesn't quite work that way. Maybe we'll take him to see a rodeo soon though... still deciding.

Since finding out I was pregnant we haven't done as much adventures and escapes. Not because I don't want to, but I find myself too tired to want to do much on the weekends besides stay home.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T19:53:00.007-05:00

I originally had a post I was going to finish eventually about nerves and getting prepared, but it made sense to post a mother's day message.

As it was mentioned today at church - Mother's day is a very sensitive topic to many people. I wholeheartedly agree. For some Mother's day is a reminder of pain - a pain of longing for a child that they cannot conceive on their own, the children they have lost, or longing for a child to adopt. I've been there and I remember how hard Mother's day was to have come and go. You'd see the pictures of children making their mother cards ("mine" went the alternative route and daddy bought it) and you'd see all these other reminders. To me, even those struggling are a mother in their own and I hope soon to see every one blessed. When people tell me they're not a mother because they're just pregnant with their first - that's not true. You are a mother. If you've had a miscarriage you're still a mother. I'm trying to figure if I can add a thing I found from a friend online who also went through struggles TTC.

Mother's day has other types of pains, but I'm trying to focus on the pleasures. I have one beautiful son. He took 2 1/2 years (technically about a year less, got to consider when my husband was out to sea of course) and one miscarriage to conceive. He's my pride and joy who was born Valentine's day, of all days. Sometimes we get caught up in life and forget how truly precious our children are. He's a smart child, was delayed speaking but we always knew he was bright. Not just because we're biased, either. Yesterday we found a caterpillar that he wanted to keep. We might have - but I found it seemed to be a lot of work to take care of something until it became a butterfly. It was interesting to me, though, because the first words out of his mouth were "butterfly" then "chrysalis". He's so smart and listens so well to what he's been taught! I was so proud. We didn't keep the fuzzy friend - I tried to return him out back and told Andrew he had to find his family.

In fact, he's too smart some times. We were waiting on telling him that mommy is pregnant but we've had discussions about babies and where they come from. I got an ultrasound done last week and so when he saw the picture we just said it was a picture of mommy's belly until we're ready to tell him the truth. (Last time we told him when we barely found out so it was hard to tell him mommy lost the baby. He didn't understand it 100%) I was looking at a pregnancy book and showed Andrew a baby in a fetal position and told him that's what a baby looked like when it was in a mommy's tummy. So today, when my husband got me a figurine of a angel mother holding a baby I commented, "but I don't have a baby yet" (since I suggested a pregnant mother figurine for Mother's Day) and Andrew commented, "No, the baby is in mommies tummy!!" It shocked me, but I think he does understand there's a baby coming. I'm sure we'll talk to him more about it. I think he'll be excited to be a big brother. He claims often he wants a baby sister, but either way he'll feel just as blessed as we do.

Mother's day may not always be celebrated in style. There may be a dirty house, no pedicure or manicure as much as you wanted one, but it's special when you're with the ones you love.

Adventures

2010-04-23T13:36:00.027-05:00

March 20th we went to Port Townsend, WA and headed to the Fort Worden and checked out the area. There was a beach - so beautiful, full of sand (some of the "beaches" down here are full of rocks) and so Andrew had a blast playing with the sand toys we brought with. Eventually we started walking and looking at more of the area - the beautiful water, the light house, and went on a little hike up to bunkers that were built roughly in the early 1900's. It was amazing to look around, walk in these bunkers and take shots of them. Kind of eerie but also neat. Aldon wound up seeing a deer close-by so I tried to take a few pictures - found out pictures don't turn out well when auto-focus keeps aiming for the branches in front of the deer. I stalked that deer quite a while and got a good 15-20 feet away from him before he'd start moving. I only like 2-3 of all the deer pictures in the end. Majority were blurred. Overall a spectacular day, aside from me falling twice during the whole time.

March 27th we headed to Bainbridge Island, WA. We spent about 2 hours in the aquatic center they have. It's a pretty good sized aquatic center - has a pool that's warmed up to about 86 degrees for children, and attached to it is what it called the lazy man's river where you go in it and pretty much the current moves you. It's kind of fun! Andrew loved going on the water slide they had there - you would think he'd be scared of the tubing being completely dark in there, but he enjoyed himself a ton!! After we were done we went and checked out a playground for a little bit then walked on a beach and saw Seattle very close in the distance. Even closer then it was in Hansville! Unfortunately my camera had a fit and the pictures of Seattle in the distance look more water color then anything (someone explained it to me as when it's hot that the steam/humidity rise of some structures and that's what caused the Seattle needle to look that way.) Bummer. But an awesome day, as always!

We had fun on Easter weekend. On April 3rd we went to Bainbridge Island with the Staleys (who have two twin girls that are my son's age) and went to the aquatic center for a couple hours. They had this egg hunt there, but it was lame since only those who got eggs were in the front. Personally it was unfair since three children had 5+ eggs and the rest had none. Their "consolation" bag consisted of a few candies for the children who didn't get any eggs. But we had fun in the water when the egg hunt was done, then we went home and had an egg hunt at our house, colored some cookies (that were cut with Easter molds), and ate Papa Murphys. It was a great day!! The day after, on Easter, we went to the Staleys house for a couple hours and painted/colored our hard-boiled eggs. The children had a blast!! And as you can see from the picture - we got Andrew a snazzy new suit and he's so handsome!

More memories

2010-04-22T12:16:00.023-05:00

March 6th and 7th some of our family came to visit!! Misty and Arnn brought their two children Jaimee and Connor down to visit since they had cheer-leading competition (for Jaimee) in Tacoma. So both days, after competition was over, they came over to our house and had some fun!! LOL the picture looks funny because most of the night Jaimee, Connor, and Andrew had licking fights. Unfortunately it ended when Andrew fell and bashed the corner of his head into my oak chest and started bleeding. I think the parents were more freaked out then he was. He was a champ though and now has the scar to prove it (picture on the right shows the scar a couple weeks after). It was a great weekend - some games, food, and a lot of talking.

March 13th was Seabeck, WA again. This time I actually did take my son and husband with. Andrew was wanting to play on the playground so Aldon took him and watched him while I took some beautiful pictures of the water and beach area. I was still testing out settings on my camera - some worked, some didn't. As always a ton of reject photos. This is one of my favorites - the water crashing in the front and in the background the clouds lightly covering the mountains. So beautiful. After I was done walking a while and taking a lot of pictures I went to the playground and had fun taking pictures of my son (and in the end realizing what settings you don't use with a super quick child). It was a great day, and very beautiful.

Originally I posted my two favorite pictures, but wanted to show more of them! March 18th Andrew and I went to Poulsbo, WA and walked along the boardwalk they have there. I noticed that the seagulls were eating their lunch - they would pick up a clam and drop it on the rocks below. The clam would break open enough so the seagulls could open it and get their meal out. It was somewhat gross, but pretty cool to hear the loud thunks of clams hitting the ground. Let me tell you - probably best to never stand under them when they're doing things like that or have a car near the water because I'm betting it'd do some serious damage. After watching this my son and I trailed the beach a little and found a playground for him to play on before we headed back, since it was a little chilly and we'd been out for a while.

Some more adventures

2010-04-20T10:06:00.028-05:00

February 6th we took a walk back in a hiking trail that we have in Silverdale, WA. Every so often through the trees you could see a beautiful site of the mountains, fully covered with white snow and clouds grazing them. It was a beautiful site and definitely was interesting to take a hike. Not sure how long the trail was, but it took us probably an hour, hour and a half to finish and get back to the car. Granted I was taking a lot of pictures so we did stop rather often. I was amazed at how many people were in the trails too - we ran into a lot of people considering. It's definitely a nice place to get a little work out in and see some beauty on and off.

My mother came to visit for a week for my son's birthday, which is February 14th. Yes, he's my Valentine's babe and I'm so grateful for the gift. So we wanted to celebrate and have some fun so all of us went and spent about 1 1/2 hours having fun and bowling. Obviously Andrew needed some help so my husband was there helping him. Sadly Andrew bowled as good, if not better, then I did. He had a blast!! Afterward we went to have Dairy Queen - didn't actually get a birthday cake or candle but it didn't matter, he had a good time and that was all that mattered. As for his birthday present? He got a "bunk bed", and we said goodbye to his crib that turned into a toddler bed. It's not 100% a bunk bed, it's got a three step ladder and is meant for one child but has a dresser, storage spots, and a desk that slides out! It's spiffy and will last him a long time.

February 21st was a visit to Hansville, WA at Point No Point. We looked at the lighthouse, watched boats sail, saw dogs having a blast in the water and fetching sticks and took a long walk along the beach. We saw Seattle very close in the distance, but not close enough to get a perfect picture of it. It was so neat to see it that close, though! My husband over heard a couple looking at something and they had found a star fish on the beach!! We allowed Andrew to feel it nicely and I took about 30 pictures before we set it back into the water (it's bottom side had it's little "feet" still moving). We actually found out later they can survive a little while out side of the water but we preferred to be considerate enough to make sure it survived or had a better chance of it. Someone saw me and my camera and told me there had been Eagle's in the trees and pointed to one. Unfortunately by the time I switched to my longer lens the Eagle flew away. We didn't have any success seeing any more after that, but it was a great day otherwise. Andrew has his fun playing with sticks, making "designs" in the sand and got really dirty. Even the picture shows that.

February 28th we ventured off to Poulsbo, WA. We checked out the Poulsbo Marine Center and it's very interesting! They have this place where you can feel some of the marine life (kiddo was more interesting in playing with the water, of course). They also have an octopus named Bob who usually isn't that active and hangs out in the corner most of the day. Not sure what prompted him to but he put on a good show for me for about 20 minutes. Maybe he hated my flash but I sure did get some awesome pictures of him. Afterward we went to a state park nearby and Aldon watched our son while I went and took some pictures of the water/Hood Canal area. Before we headed home we visited one of the communities and I took some pictures of the beautiful houses - they're close together but all of them are so colorful!! Beautiful houses, but personally I wouldn't want to buy one because they'd be too close to the next house! I'd like space to roam.

Been busy...

2010-04-19T18:30:00.019-05:00

Lately I've been trying often to go out with my son and my husband and take some pictures with my "new" camera and capture some memories as well. Every weekend if it's been great weather we've done something, which is wonderful. There's been a few weekends where we stayed at home, but for the most part we've gotten to see a few different places in Washington.

January 23rd we went to Sequim, WA. There's a game farm there which has a lot of different animals - peacocks, bears, bison, buffalo, elk, deer and a few other types of animals. It was fun slowly driving through and feeding the animals. Andrew didn't throw out really any bread - we wanted to be safe and have him just enjoying the animals. That way we could stick our windows up quickly when we needed to (like with the bigger animals). He had a blast looking at all the animals. We also looked around part of the hood canal, saw some animals and looked at the water.

January 24th we took a ferry ride to Seattle, WA. We took a walk along the harbor and made our way to the Seattle Aquarium. It was nice! It was definitely a little busy and hard to get many pictures, but Andrew had a good time checking out the sea creatures - fish, anemone, star fishes, and a huge octopus. There was also a second area that had puffins, sea otters, and a few other neat animals as well. He also got his face painted while we were there which he loved, although it got quickly smeared around. It was definitely a good experience, although if we ever do it again I think we'll buy the family pass and make it more worthwhile. It was roughly $35 to get two adults and one child in and the family pass is roughly $85 for the whole year. Go three times in the year and you make up the value and then some.

January 27th was a decent day - I went to the Seabeck, WA beach alone while Andrew was at school just to explore a new area. I didn't get many good pictures, I was still trying to discover how to get my camera to work. In fact I've had this camera three months and I *still* don't know every thing about it. Didn't take as many pictures as I now do - took some shots of the playground, a cabin nearby, and the beach. This is my favorite shot from that day. Kind of feels like the view from a child's eyes. Thankfully I did go there another time with Andrew - I'll talk about that in another blog, of course. Make sure this one doesn't drag on too long!

January 30th a submarine came back and so my husband, son and I got to witness that. It was kind of neat since I never actually watched when the submarine came in with my husband. I tried to stalk the submarine and shoot a ton of pictures (and betting the coast guard had their eyes on me), but alas this is the only picture that turned out that day. It was a dark and gloomy day and since I didn't know my camera well enough all the pictures closeup have a ton of noise in it. Not cool. I was glad we made it to our destination since the draw bridge had every one backed up for about 40 minutes!

I'll add more another time - leave it at two or three pictures and comments until I'm completely caught up.

I've been busy

2010-01-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

Okay so this past week I promise I *have* been working on my bisque ornaments, but I've also been a tad sidetracked!! Okay... really REALLY sidetracked! My husband and I have been discussing more and more actually letting me get a good camera! Not an $1800 one, obviously, but a Cannon EOS Rebel T1i. It's a great DSLR camera - 15.1 megapixel with an 18-55 mm lens included. Kind of exciting, but of course I'm nervous about any expenses to get these items! Although best-buy has a deal going on where I can get a credit card and pay no interest for 18 months assuming the full balance is paid off. I'm considering that offer - it would honestly help my credit!

Obviously I'd be buying more equipment for it.. a camera like this you can't just buy the camera and expect things to happen. I'm aiming to get some SDHC cards (saw 8GB ones on sale), an extra battery, another lens (I cannot remember the one I'm planning to get but it's a decent one), tripod, carrying case, and cleaning tools. I could get the price up there, but it'd be so worth it and the camera will last me a lifetime. Unfortunately, though, the one thing I'd *really* want to add to the bundle is.... photoshop. You seriously cannot go wrong with photoshop. Hopefully someday I can't get that as well - but a new camera will help out a ton.

Obviously if you have a great camera you need to be able to do things with it! So husband and I have been discussing going on short vacations every weekend he has off. It'll be good for all of us, even our little kiddo to go out and get to see the surrounding areas. Hopefully I can make some profit off the photos I take to allow us to afford the vacations more freely. If all means I might need to see if I can get a free job taking photos of someone's wedding and see if they'd be willing to buy copies for a little difference. Who knows, it's one of those things that will take me a while to work out. But as Aldon said, "at least if you don't sell any photos, you'll still have a camera you take great pictures with." Well said :)

When the time comes I might be making a blog only for my pictures and progress. It is a type of art/craft but this was meant for other projects! It sounds like a lot of work.

Digital camera

2010-01-09T23:37:00.000-05:00

My husband and I were talking about how I love photography and we discussed cameras. I said if I want to take really good photos I'd need a rather expensive camera... he agreed with me if that I made $1800 I could get whatever camera I would like! My husband is insane, but so sweet. However that's $1800 I haven't made but at least I know now I have motivation to get projects complete and see what else I can do to aim for a camera I'll love.

I know it's kind of insane but one of my thoughts was how much I love photography and my camera (which is 10 MP) just doesn't cut it on quality or professionalism. I've always wanted to take photos and being able to sell them but when you blow up most photos past a certain point they start getting gritty.

I wouldn't want necessarily the picture I have on this page - it's just the first digital camera SLR picture I found. It would take a lot of time, research and comparing on cameras for me to ever settle down on one. I have a while any way - because first I'd have to make $1800 lol. Then maybe someday I can take photos for a living... or get closer to that step!

The last three days

2010-01-08T23:08:00.000-05:00

The last three days I've been focusing on getting more of the ornaments done - since I only accomplished most of the front sides I was concentrating mostly on the back. I guess I wanted to make it look less bare. I still have a lot to do - once the two coats are on there is touch-ups and what-not. All the fun stuff which requires a ton more focus, more than I'm already having to do. I don't mind, although I probably will be touching up the touch-ups knowing me. LOL.

The mice in the wreaths are coming along great. I love the ones with the gold ribbon - I really think it helps them stand out more. These are harder to do which of course means one wrong move and I made a mistake. That's happened quite a few times. LOL. Just need to get those holly berries finished being painted.

Now these mice took some figuring out. I couldn't figure out what color to make their ears and front part of their face so inspiration from Tom & Jerry helped me manage a color that makes these mice look really adorable. I think I pulled it off quite well, but the real thanks goes to my dear husband who had the idea to watch Tom & Jerry to figure this dilemma out. I still need to work on coloring the snow - I'm trying to figure out a light blue/white that would make it look good but not stick out too much, just enough. That's last on my list though. Well second to the last since fixing my mistakes always come next. I never do mind.

It's sad but this one has proven to be more hassle to me although it's the SIMPLEST it gets. You'd think I couldn't mess up on this but you would be wrong. I have a feeling of all the ones I work on this one is going to take me a while to feel like I got it right. I think all the white makes it seem more like a blah ornament, but we'll see if in the next day or two I can make it fit my taste.

These wreaths are pretty easy to explain - fix my many mistakes. LOL. These came along "decent" but it is hard to not make mistakes unless you have a very steady hand and fine eye. I have neither but it's alright since I can still make it look wonderful in the end.

The trees got the rest of their ornaments painted both front and back. All left needing to be done is fixing where the ornament ends and the tree begins. Then I'm going to lightly paint pearl finish on them - thanks to my husbands idea - which seems to give it this neat silver glow to it. You'll have to wait and see :)

Teddy bear and Santa have been started the last two days. They're not too hard to work on, but the angles to provide an extra challenge. I'm more satisfied with the progress of these than any other, but they do look extra adorable. The teddy bear was worked on prior - probably 4 years ago when I only did some brown on his body so that needed fixed up as well.

These bears are a work in progress, thanks to my husband. He did two coats on the back of them so they'll be worked on by me soon. He's been trying to be a great husband (which he is) and join in helping me out or painting along side of me which is nice. Makes it so much smoother (and funner) with him around!

Once all these are done I get to start trying out my spray-on sealer. It should be interesting! I'm just hoping they will all look nice by the time they're done. I'm confident they will though. I'm excited to see the end results.

My progress so far

2010-01-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

This one I got the most accomplished on - although don't let looks deceive you, his body is no where done on the back side! There's a few places needing fixed - which is why the first mouse has white on his neck. I also noticed a little too late part of the brown I covered was not his foot, it was part of the ribbon. At least I can cover it in white then pant it whatever the ribbon color will be (probably a silver or gold, although I did find a metallic blue which I like as well). This should not take too much longer to finish these, but last minute fix-ups will be a given.

This one was improved a little bit. I changed the colors to match mittens - since before I thought they were just his hands but husband proved me wrong. Would have looked good either way, but still. I finished the ears and face color - a lot more to do still, but it will get done. I need to find the perfect mix for the snow, probably going to go with a white/light blue and then put pearl finish on it in the end (that's what the shine on it is right now). I just want it to stick out more. Of course the back isn't painted either...

As you can tell these didn't get much accomplished on it. All I really did was add a few metallic blue ornaments on the trees, add metallic silver to the ribbon and crimson red to the holly berries on the wreath.

That's pretty much the update. Got a lot done considering but much more to finish along with fixing the mess-ups. Once these are complete I'll start working on a dozen more ornaments. I arranged them all into the ones that have more than one and am working on those before the individuals get started. If I can accomplish 7 in a week I think I'll be fine. I really should start looking up crafting fairs in the general area, especially the one they have here in November. If I find out I can sign up I need to make sure I can finish not only these but other stuff I want to do. That's my goal.

First craft blog Imported from another blog

2010-01-04T23:18:00.001-05:00

This blog's main purpose is to get me motivated to do the thing I once loved - crafts. I used to do a lot of different things but found myself getting too "busy" over the years to focus on what I liked doing as well. I won't say I'm the best, but I aim to do as well as I can. I'm interested in a lot of crafts/arts - painting ornaments, painting walls (along with color coordinating), crocheting, cross-stiching, and a few dozen other things I'm interested in trying. I've had closets of crafts I've always wanted to finish and here is my chance! This is my hobby and love.

My goal lately is to finish these bisque ornaments. The majority of these pictures were painted today. Yesterday half of the wreaths were painted as well as the trees. As you can see I have a long way to go to get done and this isn't even 1/6th of my bisque ornament collection! I have a lot to fix - hard to paint small items so delicately without error. One single movement or interruption causes me to accidentally knick another part of the ornament and of course bisque dries way too quickly.

I'm a SAHM who doesn't want to teach my son to give up on what he loves. I honestly hope someday to start selling crafts on the side, whether it be on etsy.com or in craft fairs. I have always dreamed of making some extra money doing what I love as hobbies so here is my chance. One step at a time.

I know it's been years...

2009-12-31T00:46:00.007-05:00

I know any one who glances over will question why it's been about 3 1/2 years since I've posted about my son? Well, honestly I can say time flies when you're enjoying life. My son is almost 4 years old. I cannot express how quickly his birth came and went - and now he's 4, very independent and in developmental preschool since he has been speech delayed. He's been ahead in everything but speech. He started speech therapy about 2 1/2 years old which did not help much but when he hit developmental preschool at 3 years of age he just soared. He's funny and quickly becoming a riot. He does not understand everything 100% but is humorous with comments. This was our conversation a few days ago:

Me: Daddy pees more than a horse!
Andrew: Horses pee in the grass
Me (laughing): You should tell daddy that
Andrew (with a funny tone): Nooooo I won't tell him to do that!

LOL. I know it isn't much to some people - but to me it's a lot. For years we had him not say much of anything. Sentences came later on in his life which meant he couldn't even tell us what was bothering him, when he needed something, or how he was feeling. To a mother who has a child very delayed everything means so much.

Since he was speech delayed potty training never really happened. Now we're working on it. Every 1-2 hours we'll nag him, "you need to go potty? Let's go!" It's obsessive but he still refuses to tell us when he needs to go potty. Most of the times he'll wait until we've discovered it. He hasn't done #2 yet in the potty - but if we can focus on one thing at a time we'll be fine.

I'll make additions to this in time. I've just been enjoying him a lot. I am thankful he's in school though - he soared.

And time does fly

2006-07-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

It seems times flying by quickly. Andrew will be five months old tomorrow and I haven't updated this site in two months! I really should've because he's been accomplishing a lot and I don't want to miss putting down any milestones or praises. Unfortunetely I can't remember all of what he accomplished last month but I'll try!

First, we'll mention his appointment last month. The fourth month check-up our little Tigger weighed in at 15 Ibs 2 Oz and was 26 1/4 inches long. That put him in the 50% for his weight and 90%(!) for his height. All the things the pediatrician asked us if he did he either has been doing for a while or had just barely started. Here's his accomplishments since my last update.

The 4th Month (3-4 months):
-Started rolling from his back to front
-By the end of the month rolling from both his front to back, and back to front.
-Pushes up quite a bit when on his tummy
-Discovered his feet near mid-month
-Giggling and laughing more often
-Full of smiles
-Grasps things pretty well
-Still trying to get that paci in his mouth, still winds up trying to put it in backwards
-Still trying to pull himself with crunches, once did it when he was on me and got in an upright position for a few seconds

The 5th Month (4-5 months):
-Becoming a pro at rolling back to front, and front to back
-Such a pro at rolling he'll be a few feet from where we put him if we leave the room a minute
-Thinks squealing is fun. He does it when he's tired (which is the worst because that hurts the most), squeals when he's happy, and squeals to be heard
-Babbles, often
-Starts making noise if we put our finger over his mouth, that way we start making it sound like he's an indian. Will have to put up a video sometime to show it since the explanation isn't the best
-Pushes off his tummy VERY well
-Of course very full of smiles and laughs
-Reaches and grabs objects (this has become a problem because he rolls and has wound up finding things, like pieces of paper. House is now being baby proofed and floors cleaned from items)
-Along with reaching out and grabbing objects, putting them in his mouth
-Has occasionally been on his back and pushes off the carpet to move along the floor a couple feet
-Will wind up in different positions in his crib, like being 180 degrees from where he started or sleeping on his side or tummy. Will add pictures of that soon
-Been introduced baby food. Had some funny faces at first :) Enjoys banana and applesauce (only two he's been introduced too). He's fed by spoon, but doesn't eat it too often, yet
-Feet are now being pulled up to mouth and put in his mouth

We have a little sheet of paper they gave us when we had Andrew called "Owner's Manual". It has months and what milestones they should have accomplished. He's accomplished everything he should be in the fourth month and some for the sixth month. I figure I'll put down a little checklist.

4 Months Old
Babbles
Smiles/Laughs
Raises body on hands
Rolls front to Back
Good Head Control (how about GREAT head control?)
Reaches for objects
Grasps without release

6 Months Old
Single COnstanants (Does ooos and mamamamamas count?)
Makes sounds back if you make sounds first (We have conversations with eachother sometimes)
Rolls both ways
Sits with Support (this is a question mark because he'll sit when on us but isn't stable yet, but he's got a month to work on that)
Picks things up with a raking grasp
Transfers cubes (Nope? That one I don't get what they're meaning)
Looks for dropped items (and tries getting them)

So he's doing great on his milestones, to say the least. There's other little things he does otherwise too, but if I put them all I'd never end this. I'll try to update things more often. Take care, everyone!

I apologize

2006-05-20T17:44:00.000-05:00

It's so hard to believe my little man is already 3 months. It's surreal as it still feels like he should just be a newborn. I remember so much of the details it's hard to think he could be three months at all. And here I haven't been writing down all the details of what has been happening.

The 1st Month (0-1 months):
-Recognizing us
-Pays attention to us
-By the end of this month he became more alert and aware of everything around him
-Sleeps most of the time
-Eating about every 2-3 hours
-Lost his umbilical cord and had his first bath at 13 days young

The 2nd Month (1-2 months):
-Becomes very responsive
-Starts "talking to us" with oohs and ahhs
-Pays close attention to us
-Trying hard to control hand movements, but has no success
-Mid-month has wonderful head support
-Starts paying attention to the fish that go in circles on his oceanwonder swing
-Near the end of the month starts mocking our laughs
-Occasionally smiles (not gas related)
-Sticks out his tongue as a game, Aldon or I will try to grab it and it'll cause him to smile
-Awesome head support by the end of the month, has turned into a little superman (pictures will be up soon showing our little Superman)
-Attempts to move his head around to put back in his paci if it falls out
-Tries to do pushups when it is tummy time
-Is such a wiggle worm
-Eats around every 3-4 hours

The 3rd Month (2-3 months)
-Starts to gain more control of hands
-Discovered his hands, which now start going into his mouth
-Tries using his hands to push his paci back in his mouth (only once or twice with success) but mostly winds up pulling it out
-Starts grasping at things.. mainly mommies hair but also toys (which then go into his mouth)
-Very talkative, tries to communicate with a lot of sounds... coos, ahhs, squeals, etc.
-Starts giggling more, thinks daddy is such a blast
-Knows he's ticklish, he'll respond to tickled feet by jerking them away. Going to take after daddy and become a kicker when he's tickled, I can tell.
-Loves having his face touched
-Does wonderful pushups when on the floor
-At the end of the month (May 12th) my mother came to visit. He showed gramma the good stuff. When he was on his back he started to turn to the side which we've never seen before. However, he could only get to his side because he couldn't figure out where to move his arm. The day mother was leaving (technically 3 months old, May 15th) he went the distance. My mother got him on camera, for the very first time, rolling from his back to his tummy. Success!
-At the end of the month tries so hard to pull up, like he's doing a crunch to situp. Gets around halfway
-Eats about every 3-4 hours, at night usually wakes up once or twice

He's been so active. Personally, I think he's trying to be an overachiever. I don't mind, I love seeing his milestones. I know if he could, he'd be crawling by now. Everytime he's on his tummy he tries so hard to move. We'll see how long it takes the little man to master crawling. For now, we'll work on his sleeping schedule :grins:

I promise I'll update more and promise the album website will be up within the week.

The Birth Story, Our Valentine's Day Baby

2006-03-21T18:57:00.000-05:00

It's been *five* weeks since delivery, and since I have time to sit down I figure it's time I get into the birth story of Andrew. It's about time, now isn't it? Considering I've been trying to write this post for the last three weeks. Please pardon my grammar and my run on sentences. For all those who are english teachers, run now, or hold your breathe.

February 6th was my 40 week appointment. I was still 2 CM dialated, 50% effaced and the baby was around -3 station. She mentioned that she'd want to have me induced sometime around Valentine's Day and to make another appointment for my 41st week. She scheduled me for a NST also. Unfortunetely I couldn't get an apopintment that would satisfy my schedule for my routine, but I did get my NST scheduled.

February 10th I had gained 3 pounds in a single day and I didn't feel like the kiddo was moving much so they had me come in. They monitored me for 20 minutes. I was still only 2 CM dialated and probably 60% effaced by then. Andrew was doing fine and was moving a ton there so they had me leave.

February 13th was my NST appointment. Andrew's heartrate was doing great, and having peaks, which they like to see. The amniotic fluid was also doing very well. The lady there was very considerate and was able to schedule my check-up for that day. After the NST appointment we had time to go downstairs and get some Subway's. Afterwards we went back up for my appointment.

I saw a man named Dr. Q, for short. I was still the same CMs and effacement. He did a quick GBS test, since they needed to update it after 4 weeks. During the appointment he said that I'd hate him very much. I paused a moment then asked him, "Wait... you're going to strip my membranes, aren't you?" He smiled and said, "Someone has been doing their homework, haven't they?" I can tell you, I was in a ton of pain while the neverending minute of having my membranes stripped was going on.

After the appointment, around 3:45 PM, we had to go down to the laboratory to give them my GBS test. I started going into contraction heaven. At first they were going on every five minutes, but two hours later I was having them every 2-4 minutes. At 7 PM we decided to go to Labor & Delivery since I was having them constantly and they were getting intense. Unfortunetely I was only 3 CM dialated and they said they couldn't keep me unless I was in active labor which is at 4 CM. They told me to walk the hospital for two hours and they'd see if I was further then.

Walking around was *horrible*. I was in so much pain that every two minutes I'd have to stop and hang onto Aldon. I took breaks and everytime Aldon or my mother told me to start walking again I would protest before giving in. Two hours went by and they checked me again. Still was 3 Cm so I was sent home with some tylenol and ambien, to help me sleep.

That night was horrible. I took the ambien and tylenol but since my stomach was uneasy I quickly lost it. Even though I lost the ambien I think it quickly went into my system because a few times Aldon had to catch me because I was falling asleep standing up. I spent the night walking between rooms, trying to find a place that I could sleep comfortabably. My mother says I walked more between the night then I did when we were at the hospital. I was feeling bad, and the contractions weren't lightening up. Around 4:30 AM, after having the contractions every two minutes, I was able to sleep between contractions. I found relief in sleeping on a stability ball. Yes, I slept on a stability ball. I sat down on it and put a pillow on the couch nearby and laid my head down on it. I really didn't sleep, to say the least, since every two minutes I'd wake up in pain.

Around 10 AM I kept having the feeling like I was needing to use the restroom. I was quickly becoming frustrated because despite my effort, I couldn't. I decided to take a bath to see if that'd comfort me. I know this will sound gross, and you could skip this little italisized part, but for some reason I decided to "feel" down there and noticed I felt something inside me that was very soft and shouldn't have been there. I mentioned this to my mother and we decided it was time to call the hospital. Since they couldn't tell if what I was describing that I felt was either the umbilical cord or not they told me to get in as soon as possible.

We arrived there at 10:45 AM. For what reasons I'll never know, but we parked far away from the entrance. I darted from the car and ran to the elevator, which I think surprised my mom since she's never seen me go that fast. We got to the Labor & Delivery room and they sent me to a room to be checked. I kept telling Beverely, the sweetest nurse I've ever known, that I had to use the restroom. Every time I attempted I failed. She started asking me questions about that and had the doctor in very soon. The doctor told me I was 10 CM dialated and had a little lip left. What I was feeling was my water bag! I was quickly rushed into a delivery room. Dr Q. was so proud to see me in there. He checked me out and said I was 10 CM with no lip.

Since I was positive for GBS they hooked me up to some antibiotics. Not once did any of the doctors or nurse leave the room and if they did, there was someone there to replace them. Around 11:30 they told me to start pushing. They weren't going to pop my water bag so they put on saftey goggles incase I gushed. I was trying to push as hard as I could but wasn't doing that well. 30 minutes later they decided it was time to pop my bag. I was told that there was a thick amount of meconium, which meant the baby had his first bowel in utero. As I was pushing everyone kept encouraging me. Dr Q. suggested a vaccum pump if I needed it, since he knew I was tired and lacked energy. I didn't accept it and continued to push. Andrew Blake Wallace was born at 12:57 PM. He was 7 Ibs 10 Oz and 21" inches long. Unfortunetely he had breathing problems so they had to take him and started giving him some oxygen.

After they were finished I got to see him a few moments before they took him away. I hadn't had an episitiomy and only had two small tears. One required a single stitch, and the other one didn't. Within less then an hour I was walking around and visiting Andrew.

They had to keep Andrew in a little oxygen hood since he was having problems breathing. They were going to keep him on 12 hours and then ween him slowly off. I visited him often that day. The morning of the 15th at 7:30 I went in there. He was still on the hood. One of the nurses told me that he was being weened off earlier, and at 3 AM he started wheezing so they were giving him a little longer. The took him off the hood around the same time and he did wonderful. He was able to room-in around noon. He was also receiving antiobiotics because I wasn't able to receive 4 hours of it before delivery.

On the 16th, around 5 PM, we were all able to leave the hospital. Thus starting a hectic, but wonderful relationship with the newest addition to our family.

39 Weeks 4/7 Days (or 2/7 Days)

2006-02-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

Isn't it amazing how close I am to the end? I still can't believe it. And while I'm not really thinking about delivery and I'm not too nervous, I still am at the same time. I don't think anyone is ever prepared for the end. The delivery. How do you prepare for an event like that besides packing your bags? Which I haven't completed, by the way. That's the task on today's agenda. I just don't think there is anyway to physically and emotionally prepare yourself for the day.

My mother arrived here Friday, January 27th, which is very nice to have. She's leaving here February 14th, that way she should be here for the birth and be here long enough Aldon will be home. The extra hand with her being here has came in handy. That, and it's great to have her around. Plus it's been good on my sleeping schedule, in a way. I wake up when she wakes up, since I'm a light sleeper. Today, though, I woke up before her because my cats were making too much noise at 8 AM.

We've accomplished so much since she's been here. We've got the crib set up, clothes washed and put away, more of the painting accomplished, and so much more. It's been a relief.

Monday, January 30th, was my 39th week appointment routine checkup. My blood pressure was 124/78 which was still good to me! Considering my weight gain and everything I'm really surprised my blood pressure has been very good. My weight was a bit bad though. I've gained a ton. The doctor pointed it out, as if I should "watch my weight", and obviously I have been watching it... it's been going up. LOL. Seriously, though, I haven't eaten all that horrible lately so I don't know what is going on.

The babies heart rate is doing very well and my uterus is measuring right on schedule. She then did an internal exam. I'm already 2 CM dilated and 50% effaced. The baby is stationed at -2 which means he's right in there where he needs to be. He's head down (don't ask me how she found out! It hurt like a mo-fo). So everything is going along well. When she was doing the internal she started moving her finger back and forth and I started complaining about the pain so she stopped. She was trying to strip my membranes! She said if I was ready to go into labor it would help push me into it. And if it wasn't time, I wouldn't. She mentioned though she so wanted to "strip the bejeebus out of" me because she swears I would've gone into labor. Only reason she didn't was because I was in pain. Who the hell wouldn't be? One thing she mentioned is that daughters tend to take after their mother in delivery. I think that made mom a little anxious, considering she had her first delivery take only 9 hours (quick for a first delivery) and that was because he was breached and I only took an hour and a half.

After the appointment I wanted to show my mother the birthing rooms so she could feel at ease about everything. The second we got onto the floor she mentioned she was now getting nervous. I asked one of the ladies on the floor if she had an open room available so I could show mother around. She walked us around every area of the place. She showed us the room (which has the biggest tub in there), she showed us where the baby would be circumcised, the incubators (?), everything. She also answered every question I could think of. Questions about circumcision, what they'd do if I don't have enough time to get antibiotics for my GBS, if I could still relax in a bath during labor, etc.

That night I was in contraction heaven. Mother was getting very worried because I kept getting contractions every 5 minutes for around 30-45 seconds long. But they were irregular since a few were 10-15 minutes apart. They say true labor involves back pressure/pain and that is exactly what I was having too. They settled down when I moved around and we both went to sleep. This next part is a little gross so those who may be relatives skip over the italicized part: Yesterday I noticed I've lost part of my mucous plug which means my body is prepping. Today I lost a ton more of my mucous plug. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll be in labor soon, but it means my body is taking a step in the right direction.

Ever since that appointment, though, I've been having more contractions. Not really any today, thankfully.

That is pretty much all there is to say. Pray Aldon makes it home in time!

A lot of time has passed

2006-01-26T11:21:00.003-05:00

Well a lot of time has gone by and I never got the chance to update this blog. Although I am sad that I didn't get to write down all the wonderful things that have happened in this pregnancy, I still have those memories which will last a lifetime. But here's what I can tell you...

In August we moved from Georgia to Washington. After a week of RV problems we made it to Idaho where we spent a week then promptly headed to Washington (where we had another RV complication). We spent a while Manufacture Home searching (since the houses down here are so expensive). We had put in an offer on an house, was accepted and had a thirty day closing time. Ten days til closing the seller backed out, pissed because there was a few *minor* repairs she'd have to do on the house for our lender to close. We went back on the MF home hunt and we finally found one we liked which was the exact replica of the other, in the same Mobile Home Park, but so much better in condition. It was ironic since it was awaiting approval when we first saw it. The luck of small favors.

During this time I was trying to get Tricare to change my regions over. I filled out all the papers and sent them in. About three weeks after I did I called them explaining how far along I was and that I needed approval. The lady forwarded everything to her supervisor and in a week I was approved. Making that a total of three months (a whole trimester) without being seen by a doctor.

I'm 38 weeks pregnant now. I am either due around February 4th or 6th, depending on if you're speaking to my old doctor or new. I go by February 4th since that is what I was originally told and that's what all the websites say I am. Although, personally, I'm praying that the little one holds out because Aldon is out to sea currently and will be back soon after. I'm going to break down what we know and what is going on. Edited 6/15/2010: Bravely posting what I looked like around 38 weeks pregnant!! Don't mind the face - it never looks like I'm smiling even when I was!

Felt babies kicking: September 9th, about a month after I could see the kicks.

Morning sickness: No, just always the blah feeling but nothing more.

Type B Strep (GBS): Tested positive, will be receiving either Arythimicin or another drug during delivery since I'm allergic to Ammoxicillian/Penicillian and Cleocin (their two top drugs they use).

Gestational Diabetes: Tested negative both at 8 weeks pregnant and around 33 weeks pregnant. That was good news for me!

Anemic?: Nope, those test came back normal too.

Complications?: Nothing bad has happened to me. The only time I had any problems was on my birthday, September 25th. I told Aldon I felt like I was going to faint and he didn't believe me. Two seconds later he wound up having to catch me, since I almost fainted. We figured I had low blood sugar since I just mentioned being very hungry. That and I was in a hot shower. One of my appointments the little guys heart-rate was high too, which caused me 30-45 minutes of being monitored which they then decided he was fine.

Gender: We're expecting a baby BOY. Found out on my second ultrasound which was late in the pregnancy, on December 20th.

How I'm doing now: Since we've moved in I've been doing the same as always. Everyone expects me to feel horrible right now but I don't. I'm still doing the cleaning and painting (yes, with a respirator and not too often). I've kept everything up and have felt great. Exhausted? Of course, who wouldn't be. But nothing to complain about! No swelling, no "morning sickness", although occasionally I have felt a little more icky but that is to be expected.

Where am I delivering: Well, this is the unfortunate part. Since I'm enrolled in Tricare Prime and there is a military facility "not too far away" they say in my contract I have to go to them for OB/gyn care and the delivery. So instead of getting to birth at the place I want to, which is only a mile from my home, I have to take a fifteen minute drive to the Naval Hospital. Their facility is nice, but I still say there is a lot of idiots there. Long story. Or actually, a short one, let's just say they've screwed up a few times on my file and even once after just ASKING me they put on my files I wasn't allergic to Ammoxicillian. Big mistake.

Oh and incase you're wondering... my mother is coming down here from Idaho tomorrow. She's going to be here almost three weeks. She wants to be sure to be down here for the birth incase Aldon can't make it in time. She also wants to be here long enough to give me some help when he is born and make sure Aldon will make it back before she leaves too. I love my mother.

Pictures added 6/15/2010. The baby room: You should see it! I've been updating a website Album that has pictures of it there but it's currently down so no one can see it until it's completely done. I painted Baby Looney Tunes pictures on the wall and then about 2/3 down the wall I made Baby Looney Tunes stencils and used them to create a border. The top of the wall is in the color Butterfly Flutterby (try saying that five times fast) and the bottom color is Silly Old Bluebird. Those are Behr Disney Colors which can be seen if you click this: Disney Behr

That's the update! I might add a me picture on this Saturday, since I'll be 39 weeks along and my mother can take the picture. Plus I just bought two wonderful outfits yesterday since I was sick of having my tight panel pants and not many good pregnant shirts. Got pants that are maternity that hang under the belly, are so much more comfortable, and look so much better. That and they'll be something I could wear for a little bit after the delivery. I'll make sure to add a picture, promise :o)

The homecoming

2005-07-20T07:56:00.001-05:00

Aldon came home the 13th of this month. This is an E-mail "update" I sent to a lot of my message groups about the event.

Well, first for those who are wondering why Aldon didn't know ahead... I found out I was pregnant three days after he went out to sea. We didn't have many maildrops and then they went on alert. By the time they got off it was about 2 weeks before they'd be home.. and since I think telling him on paper is a little impersonal I decided to wait :o)

When I finally saw him, after waiting about 1 1/2 hours for him to get off the boat... I was soooo nervous. I had it all planned out but was hesitating. I told Aldon I had something to tell him... I said, "there's someone new in my life, and I want them to be in yours." He raised an eyebrow and starting looking around the crowd! I told him I had a picture of them since they couldn't come. I opened my purse backpack and started giving him items to "hold onto" so I could get to the picture. First I pulled out my crackers, then I handed him a baby bottle (which he started smiling about), then a pacifier, then a baby diaper... he saw what was at the bottom and was like, "there's an ultrasound..." so I handed it to him.

He just stared and smiled at the ultrasound for the longest time. He asked me how far I am and I told him I was ten weeks now, that I found out a few days after he left. He hardly spoke a word! He was so happy. He just HELD onto me and wouldn't let me go. Unfortunetely he had watch duty so he had to let go of me. I asked him if I should keep ahold of the baby picture since he wasn't letting it out of his grasp either. It was too cute.

When he got home we cuddled and talked about it. He was *very* shocked but said he's also very excited about it. So all went well :o) He's babying me a little. I think we're both nervous about everything. But we're both very excited :oD

The Introduction

2005-07-09T10:35:00.000-05:00

As with all new bloggers starting out, they find themselves beginning with the introduction. My name is Krystal, I'm 21 years old, married 3 years 7 months to my wonderful Navy man, and we're expecting our first child.

We tried over 2 years to conceive without success. In January I found out I was pregnant, but unfortunetely it ended in miscarriage in early February. We weren't planning on trying again until I got my weight down to 180 (my choice) but destiny had it's own plans. I found out the 5th of June that I was pregnant. Something just told me I should take a pregnancy test and to my surprise... I was very much pregnant. On the 9th it was confirmed by my primary care manager and on the 28th I had my first ultrasound.

So here we are, starting our new blog about pregnancy and the likes. I do hope you enjoy your stay.

Sidenote: I may be converting my TTC Journal into this one, to save space. We'll see.

Life, or something like it

Thankful for Thursday

I've been absent again

Keeping busy

Our vacation Part #1

Somewhat "Wordless" Wednesday

On vacation

Sometimes I love photoshop

Where have I been?

Memories in Photos Wednesday

Closetful of Crafts Friday

Using my creative side, a different way...

Memories in Photos Wednesday

Doing a poll

What should my header be?

Closetful of Crafts Friday

Blog Hopping, cont. & help requested

Memories in Photos Wednesday

Another old post became new *Added

Tuesday Tagalong & Follow Me Back

Octopus Photo Question!

Closetful of Crafts Friday?

So which header do you like?

"Blog Hopping"

Old posts become new again!

Memories in Photos Wednesday

Doing another Follower Thing

Some of my posts won't show *Added More*

I'm alive

Grow your wings and fly away

More fun times

Happy Mother's Day

Adventures

More memories

Some more adventures

Been busy...

I've been busy

Digital camera

The last three days

My progress so far

First craft blog *Imported from another blog*

I know it's been years...

And time does fly

I apologize

The Birth Story, Our Valentine's Day Baby

39 Weeks 4/7 Days (or 2/7 Days)

A lot of time has passed

The homecoming

The Introduction

Some of my posts won't show Added More

First craft blog Imported from another blog