I'm Fat {{A Baby-J Update}}

On Friday I will be 28 weeks pregnant {{Seven months, for those you not up on the lingo}}. This pregnancy has flown by with hardly any drama and almost no puking, a fact I am supremely greatful for, after spending the majority of my first, and the first half of my second pregnancy with my head in a toilet. I can officially say this pregnancy hasn't been awful. Actually, if all of my pregnancies were as uncomplicated and smooth as this one, I might be happy to have ten kids {{but lets not get crazy}}.

Baby J is a very healthy little girl. She's active as can be {{so active at one point I had to go to L&D because I thought her acrobatics and pokey-fingers game were causing unwanted things to happen}}. She is measuring spot on and though she is due Nov 2nd, I have a feeling she'll be making her debut into the world some time the week before Halloween, but we shall see. They all come when they want to. She is a fiesty little thing. She refuses to let them monitor her heart beat for longer than a second and she LOVES calling the 1-800-momsfood line and asking for cupcakes. And skittles. Lots and lots of skittles. This pregnancy I have gained more weight at this point, than I had in my other two, but in my other two pregnancies I gained a lot of weight {{like 30 pounds each time}} very quickly in the last three months. Maybe this time it just evened out over the whole nine months {{Or maybe I'm just huge and we'll play it off like I meant to do it.}}

"Some how" I have managed to stay busy enough to avoid sitting and focusing on the fact that in a few months we will have two children under one and a three year old. J asked me the other day if I was ready {{which effectively, is like asking if I am ready to be run over by a semi and then thrown onto a porcupine.}} Yes, we are ready for a baby to come. The house is {{almost}} all set and even Bug seems to understand another human will be living with us shortly. We have everything we need and Baby J even has her own space in the closet. We are ready but I'm not sure you can ever mentally prepare yourself for what's about to happen. I mean, 2.0 is still up three or four times a night and Bug has more attitude than I do {{which should be some kind of impossibility}}. I also keep getting asked if I'm getting excited {{sorry people, but please refer to the comment about being run over by a semi}}. My husband is coming home from deployment to an infant who was two months old when he left, a three year old and a hormonal pregnant house woman and in the "honeymoon phase" of all of that, we are adding another baby to the mix {{nothing like making all of your life adjustments at one time!}}. While it all IS exciting {{please no hate mail about how babies are blessings, I KNOW we are blessed and I am excited Baby J will be here soon}}, MOSTLY it's all just really scary.

I feel like it will be like ripping off a band-aid. It will suck while it's happening and then all the anxiety about doing it will be worthless because it wasn't really *that* bad anyways. The good news is I won't be pregnant again for a very VERY VERY long time {{I've already told my doctor that I will hold her personally responsible if it happens again}} and in the grand scheme of things being pregnant for three years isn't that bad... It could be worse...

That Duggar woman has been pregnant for twenty-two years...

I neeeeeed to blog!

Remember my post about our computer and the creeper who fixed it? Well, he didn't fix it and it officially crashed about a week after I wrote that blog. J felt sorry for me, trying to do everything I needed a real computer for on my phone and we decided the least expensive route would be for me to have a tablet, which would, in theory, get me to his home-arrival date. We have a brand new laptop, it just happens to be with him. In Afghanistan. Probably in a foot locker. Where I can't use it. I'm still not positive how that came to pass. The one we had was dying when he left {{hence, the new one}} and I'm not exactly sure how the new one went to Afghanistan and the old one stayed home to die here {{no TAPS for a laptop, huh?}}.

Anyway, for about a month I made due with the tablet and my phone. Both of which I could have typed a blog on, but niether are entirely comfortable for long winded post-typing and also {{an more importantly}} we didn't really have anything exciting going on. Our days come and go with Groundhog Day-esque monotony, broken only by random appointments and pay day errands. Fully narrated {{for your viewing pleasure}}, not by Bill Murray, but by the awesome observations of an almost three year old. She tells me what we are doing from the moment she enters my room in the morning until it's time to find her princess flashlight for bed. "Mommy, you wakin up now? Mommy, you changing baby sissers butt now? Mommy, You making cereal? Mommy, that noise is the coffee pot. Haha! Beep! Beep! Time for coffee, Mommy! Mommy, you eating toast? I like to make toast, can I help? Mommy, you unloading the dishwasher? Mommy, you walking up the stairs now?" It. Goes. On. AAAALLLLLLLL DAAAAAAYYYYYY. Sometimes, the narrative stops {{thank you, sweet Jesus!}} and she uses a series of clicks, beeps and bops to communicate {{womp, womp}}. My point is, if I posted about our days of this I would very quickly lose any readers I may have, so I just haven't posted.

On the up side, lately I have thrown myself full into getting my long list of projects done. I have made a nice dent in the list but this funny thing happens when you accomplish one project, you think about another one to add to the list. So, while I may be getting a lot done, I can't seem to get to the bottom of the to-do list. The biggest project is re-doing the rooms upatirs to accomodate our pending arrival. The bonus room {{currently our active living area}} with the girls room. What is currently Bugs room will be the man cave. What is currently 2.0's room, will be the Mama-cave {{I wish my name was Wanda so we could call it "Wanda-land"}}.

Here is where "we" are in our massive room re-dos: {{Some day each of these rooms will have their own post}}

I painted the man cave in the NFL colors of Js favorite team. {{It's funny because the princess bed is still in that room and it just looks silly!}} From where he is, J has been Ebaying team paraphernalia and chotchkies to fill his space and make it a happy home for his butt. The room will be loaded to the gills, but hopefully, in a classy way and not in a bad Applebee's way.

The girls room has been painted. This has been difficult because it is still acting as our family room, so trying to decorate around the sofa {{any one want to buy a giant couch?}}, tv and my office has been kind of a pain. I bought one color to paint the whole room and it turned out to be the same color the builder used {{womp, womp}}. We decided to paint the top half of the room in the light cream color and do a pink that coordinated with the fabrics I am using on the bottom half of the wall.

I love the way it turned out and with the way I am using everything, I think it will be girly without being punch-you-in-the-face-pink {{not what I was going for.}} I also finished the girls name art. I mod-podged my fabric scraps to the letters for their names and each girl will have a wall with their name and maybe pictures of them {{or something?}} I haven't really decided on that yet.

My next project is to get the furniture I have purchased for their room painted. So far we have a nice three drawer nightstand {{free from a friend}}, a five drawer dresser {{$45 from a local thrift store}} and some shelves that we had, that I decided to up-cycle for their reading area.

I have also been doing a TON of sewing {{hello? How come now one told me how addicting the sewing machine was?!}} and I have decided I'll be using Wal-mart flat sheets for everything in the future. Inspired by the awesomeness of the little reading tent I made, I am making matching duvet covers for each of the girls.

{{Still a work in progress}}

Sadly, the Mama-cave has taken a back seat to the other rooms. I really want to have a nice place for J to go to relax when he gets home and I also want the girls to have a fabulous room. That being said the Mama-cave re-do will probably not be done until after the new year. However, I am already pinning ideas and I know how I want it to look, and that's half the battle, right?

Stay tuned for more projectopia and a very late baby update {{whoops!}}

The Blue Screen of Death

I have always been overly attached to my cell phone. An attachment that got to a whole new level during J's last deployment. If I was ever without my phone it most surely ended in a panic attack {{what if he called?!}} This deployment has been a little different. I'm still attached to my phone {{it even has a name}} but this time around, most of our conversing has been done on FB or through Google phone. I have both the apps on my phone but it's just soooo much easier to chat on a full size keyboard and so much easier to protect the camera from a two year old when it's able to sit flat on something, so I like to use the laptop more than my phone.

I have been having some issues with it lately and even told J recently that I need to back up the data so we didn't lose it all when it died for good. It's been crashing a LOT. It would freeze up and restart or the screen would go to a crazy, hot mess and all I could do was take the battery out, unplug it, and try again. I feel like I'm a relatively smart individual and for most things I am really good at figuring it out when I don't know how to do something. However, the thought of downloading something that could make it worse, resetting the system and losing everything unintentionally or doing worse harm to the computer kept me from Googling how to solve this issue. There are just some things you leave to professionals.

Yesterday, as I knew it eventually would, the computer got worse. It was doing the crazy-screen thing and randomly restarting when I asked too much of it, but it was also showing the Blue Screen of Death {{doomiest voice possible}}. Ok, that's a little dramatic. But it happened a good eight times. It would flash to this blue screen full of computer gibberish and at the bottom it said, "Crash Dump," Then it would restart and go to the crazy, hot mess screen {{these are computer terms, I checked}}. Let's talk about how frustrating it is to be in the middle of doing something INSANELY important {{like shopping}} and having your computer Blue Screen of Death you. Not only did it happen while I was online window shopping, but it also happened while I was blogging {{*gasp!*}} and it didn't even save. Things were serious. When the laptop restarted after that {{maybe the 9th time of the day}} I quickly Googled the number for Toshiba Support and made the phone call.

A woman named "Brenda Williams" answered the phone, catching me quite off guard as I had expected to spend at *least* twenty minutes on the phone with a machine before getting to speak to a live person {{the nerve of these companies having LIVE people answer their phones!}}. I'm fairly certain her name wasn't Brenda Williams. I'm actually fairly certain she's never even met anyone named Brenda Williams. Brenda Williams might have had the job at one time, before it was outsourced, but the lady I spoke with was most definitely NOT a Brenda Williams. She had very thick accent. I had to ask her to repeat things several times but she was very nice and very helpful. She assured me they could fix my laptop, that they could do it remotely so I wouldn't have to wait. She even gave me a {{small}} discount when I choked on my dinner when she told me how much it would cost to fix. After deciding I didn't really have a choice, I paid the nearly $200 {{I couldn't blog!! It was an emergency!!}} and she connected me to a technician remotely who spent the next three hours solving all of my computer problems.

I have been really concerned about taking it somewhere and having people go through all of the stuff on our computer... namely certain pictures I sent to my husband from the last deployment... So being able to watch Creepy "Tom" {{hey come on! It's creepy to watch your computer being controlled by someone who no doubt spent the rest of the night watching me through the camera!!}} was kind of... nice?

Then as he finished solving my Blue Screen of Death, I thought about those pictures. They were taken a while ago. Before kids and breast feeding...

Maybe we could have traded...

Inspiration

Since J left and I found out I was knocked up again, I have been suffering from some serious lack of motivation to do anything. My house is clean enough, the girls are fed, work is getting accomplished, but other than that, everything else is just sitting. It's not all from a lack of motivation. Between the kids and the dogs, some days I feel like I'm fighting an up hill battle trying to make a nice clean home. Pretty much every time I accomplish one task, one of my children {{be it furry or not}} destroys something else. It's very frustrating and in my case motivation-killing.

However, now that we know that baby3 is a little girl, we have to do some serious rearranging of the upstairs of our house. Right now, we have one child in each bedroom {{us in the master, obviously}} and we use our large upstairs bonus room as a family/man room and an office. Well, that won't work now. We have decided the best way to accommodate three girls is to put them all into the large Bonus {{which conveniently has three walk in closets}}. Then J will have his own man room and I'll have a proper Mama-cave. The room is big enough to last the three of them until J can retire and then we'll be on to bigger things {{and houses}} anyways.

I have been having fun planning a nice girly room for our little princesses and thought I'd share some of my inspirations for their room.

Color Palette

Source

Source

Wall Decor

Source {{LOVE!!}}

Source

I want to do something fun for each girls name, above their bed.

Curtains

Source

Maybe some ombre ruffly curtains to match their color palette?

Something Fun

Source

One of the BEST things we have done for Bug {{and eventually our subsequent children}} is enrolling her in the Dr. Suess book club {{a GREAT gift for any child!}} She loves to read and LOVES getting the books for her in the mail. We signed her up when she was 18 months old, so she has developed quite the collection. I want to turn what is now the office, into their reading/ color area. It'll have book shelves, a black-board wall, a small coloring table and hopefully a nice little place for them to curl up with their books.

Lot's to do... and I can find motivation in the fact that when it's all said and done, this mama will have her own hiding space!

So there I was...

The week after J left... miserable, emotional, reclusive and any other adjective that you would describe a normal newly alone mom of two under two. Life was crazy. The kids were crazy. Pretty much the norm for the beginning of a deployment, except I had been feeling really out of sorts and very not my normal, let it roll off my back, self.

After enough eye twitching events occurred that week, I decided to do what every girl does when they feel more like a female version of the hulk, than their usual self... I took a pregnancy test. And like any girl who takes a test and sees two lines, I took four more.

Huh. That's interesting. Pretty sure I've stated here, very clearly, just how *done* I was being pregnant {{maybe once or twice}}. So you can imagine my complete and utter surprise at seeing two lines, four times. I had this moment when I was staring at the tests where I seriously considered calling the manufacturer. It says to call with questions, "Hey, um... could four positive tests be wrong?" Probably not... Then I did what I'm sure many of the other moms have done when they have a teething four month old, an defiant two year old and a husband deployed seven thousand miles away: I cried... For days.

Ok, ok. Tell me now what an awful person I am. People try for years... Spend thousands of dollars... Every child is a blessing... I'm not denying any of that... But until you are standing on the high dive, about to jump into the three-kids-under-three and a soldier-husband who has been gone a week and has already said the words "the next deployment" - pool, You can't judge me or anything I say.

The first few days weren't great. I honestly NEVER in my life thought I'd be here {{payback's a bitch... I am the first to say, "Don't you know what causes that?"}}. My first pregnancy was AWFUL. I threw up all day long every day, the whole pregnancy. The second wasn't much better and I'm not too ashamed to admit that my initial shock was selfish questioning if I would be able to handle it all, again. Plus, can I mention the fact that I had *just* gotten down to pre-pregnancy weight from 2.0?

It took a good week. I wallowed in self pity on my couch waiting for the crippling morning sickness to kick in, totally cutting myself off from everyone. Then I put my big girl panties back on and accepted our little gift for what it is and found the bright side of having another baby... even if meant having three kids, three and under.

J has been AMAZING through the whole thing. As soon as I told him he was SUPER excited!! He was so happy he told everyone he worked with and I quickly was getting congratulations from people, when I wasn't feeling so celebratory. Some women would be annoyed by this, but it actually helped me. It took a while, but now I am OVER JOYED at our pending arrival!

I made the decision to keep the baby under wraps until we knew the sex. I knew we could stop a lot of well-intended, yet hurtful comments, by waiting until there was no gender question.

So last weekend, we went down and had our gender scan. J was able to listen over the phone and watch the scan via the internet. It made me SO happy that he could be there, even though he wasn't in the room...

And so... Ladies & Gentlemen... I introduce to you

16wk - Baby Girl #3. Due 11/2 {{five days before 2.0's first birthday}}

Wednesday Wish Day

Ok, I'm back {{I think}}. Since J left I have been moping unmotivated lazy indifferent distracted. I haven't really wanted to do much, much less complain about it. Beyond caring for my children and doing my household duties, I've kind of been slacking. Yesterday when I woke up felt different and I feel like I got more done yesterday than I have in the last week {{but really I didn't}}. The most important thing I did yesterday {{other than enjoying our GORGEOUS weather}} was making a Deployment To Do list. Lists make me happy. They give me warm and fuzzies and make me feel productive even if all I've done is just write a list. It's a pretty ambitious list that has a "short-term" and a "long-term" side. It includes things I've discussed here previously and new things I added to keep me busy {{hey, I have 7 months to fill}}.

After I made the list I prioritized it. As I was doing this, sitting outside on our pretty screened in porch on a gorgeous NC day, Bug was playing in our sand pit weed & sticker infested no grass at all backyard with the dogs. J and I have talked about having sod put in since we moved in. the builder said they seeded but I could probably put up a good debate to that. While watching her chasing the dogs, digging in the sand and falling on her face {{she is my kid}} I decided to add a play set to the list. The more I thought about having a play set, the higher on the list it got. When I realized that if we had a play set, on any given day when my child was driving me bananas, I could send her right outside to play. Suddenly, this was the best idea I've ever had!

This morning I found one that I liked and that Bug would definitely enjoy {{We could put a piece of wood back there and it would make her happy}}. Not only that but the huge amount of sanity saving play time this would give me {{Have I mentioned that yesterday was day three of listening to her favorite make-mommy-want-to-hang-herself noise??}}, makes this almost an instant necessity. Unfortunately, its not in our budget today. Probably won't be tomorrow, but hopefully soon. Also, there's the silly little detail of putting the damn thing together {{probably NOT something I can do by myself}}.

So, my wish for this Wednesday is the play set fairies will visit in the night and drop off a fully assembled {{and paid for}} wooden play area.

Probably not gonna happen... But it's Wednesday. I can wish all I want.

Deployment Rules 1, 2 and 3

Any military spouse can tell you the number one rule of deployments is, as soon as they leave, things will inevitably fall to smelly, smashed up pieces. In the last 72 hours 2.0 has started MAD teething {{which makes her want to be held ALL day and not want to nap}}, Bug has learned to open the fridge {{yay for raw eggs being found all over the kitchen}}, the laptop cable for our computer died {{thank goodness for my old phone book Dell laptop cable fitting}}, our TV is probably dying {{the picture keeps shrinking and I cant fix it}} and I'm pretty sure I found mouse poop this morning {{EFFING AWESOME!!}}. Oh and for some reason, no matter how hard I try, I can't grow a third arm so I always have a free hand to carry my phone.

J left on Tuesday. When J's schedule changed, my BFF changed hers so she could be here with me and I'm not quite sure how I would reacted if she wasn't there. She was able to keep me distracted enough that we were all making jokes and laughing right up until they called the 5-minute warning for the end of family time. We hugged and kissed and hugged again and then he chased us off to prevent a long drawn out "see you later". Bug was upset that we were leaving him, but I think my ability to keep myself together, kept her from freaking out and once in the car I was immediately relieved for that part to finally be over with.

So, he's gone. And inevitably, as is how it goes, it is time for everything to explode, die, overflow, get lost or ruined, and or fall apart. The really sad part about all of this is that, as far as I'm concerned, not growing a third arm is my biggest problem right now. The second rule of deployments is that you will become tethered to your cellular device as you {{and those around you}} never thought possible. Being married to your phone is one of those little ticks you get after they leave. You wait for days to hear from them, compulsively checking your email, Facebook, Twitter {{well, I would if I had one}}, MySpace {{hey, it could happen}}. Take a shower, check your phone. Pick up a crying baby, check your phone. Tie your shoes, check your phone. Hear a beep, chime, or church bells; Check your phone. It's an illness. Then you panic when you try to check your phone and you can't find it. I've had three almost-meltdowns because I couldn't find my phone when I've been sitting on it. This is where that third arm would really come in handy. I'd never have to put it down.

Of course, not putting down your phone doesn't stop other retarded things from happening. J sent me a message yesterday saying he would call soon and then in the four hours after that message, I got five phone calls from telemarketers. Deployment Rule #3: As soon as they might call, every sales group in the western hemisphere will call from numbers that *might* be your spouse. There is always this awkward moment of serious let down after you answer expecting your spouses voice and a woman asks if you've ever considered AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ADT or voting for Mit Romney. Seriously, These things happen to me.

If I didn't find it all almost funny, I'd probably be a mess right now {{or be day drunk constantly}}. For the most part I know how lucky we are: the girls and I are safe, J is safe and my mom will be here soon for a visit. Even at my loneliest, I have found that I'm not truly alone, it just feels that way. And there is always wine {{sweet, sweet, feeling killing wine}}.

J will be home before we know it and in the mean time I can work on that third arm.

Today...

It is fitting that today is Valentine's Day because all I can think about is chocolate. Not because it's V-day either. I'm a little sad and, I don't know about you, but when I'm sad I have this nervous habit of baking. {{KILL THE EMOTION WITH BROWNIES!!}} It's the weirdest thing...

They moved J's leave date again {{Yes! A-FREAKING-gain!! That's four times if you're counting. But I'm definitely not.}} He now leaves five days sooner than we were thinking. So, I have been thinking all day about goodies I can make for the guys on their trip. J's last trip home they got stuck on a plane for three days and all they got to eat was plane food. Yum. I was thinking it might be nice to send him with a shit-ton {{real measurement of weight}} of baked goods in case they get stuck somewhere {{and to kill the feelings}}. I know I don't talk about Pinterest very much {{Ha!}}, but I've been scouring it for a good part of the day in between my online retail therapy sessions trying to decide what to make. The problem is it all looks DELICIOUS and when I'm in this mood, I can't be trusted to make such important decisions. How do you decide between them all??

{{Images are property of their respective owners. If you'd like the link to any of these recipes let me know and I will send it to you. I'm too lazy to link them all up right now.}}

I've been drooling over all these recipes most of the morning and if I end up baking as much as I'd like to I'll need to stay on the elliptical for the better part of the next three weeks... But you cant serve food you haven't tested and you can't kill feelings with brownies you don't eat.

True story.

Watching Paint Dry

This is the longest I have sat down in the last three days {{writing this blog, watching paint dry}}. I've been keeping myself SUPER busy. And by busy I mean I refuse to sit still. Sitting still means thinking about things to come. Thinking about things to comes usually means some form of crying. And why do that when I could just turn it into something productive?

Tuesday I blasted for the first time since before 2.0 was born. It was a GREAT feeling to be doing that again and I LOVED the way everything came out... until I noticed a date wrong on the baby prints frame I was making for my cousin {{womp, womp, womp}}. It was perfect besides that. The "Notions" jar turned out great and it was so perfect to keep my desk organized, I made one for my neighbor.

Yesterday I made the girls blankets, rearranged my office, made a pin board for my pictures to free up desk space {{with some fabric I LOVE and had no idea what to use for}}, cleaned the house {{wish you could have seen it}}, went on a walk, let Bug play with our neighbors kid {{Bug's little boyfriend}} for awhile, then made dinner. While dinner was cooking I managed to create a feature wall with our family pics. It turned out WAY cute!! When we finished dinner, we went to Lowe's and to Walmart in search of patio furniture {{which we did not find}}. By the time we got home it was time for bed.

Today I have managed to clean downstairs and primer the walls that had Bug's Sharpie vandalism artwork on them and then painted the sliding glass-door wall and touch up the green wall she tagged. All before 11am. We were supposed to go to lunch at a neighbors house but Bug had a very bad attitude and so instead I am enjoying some quiet time in my office while both girls nap {{2.0 is even in her own, bed!! Yay!!}}. J will be home in a bit and then we're off to an FRG function {{jury is still out on this one}}.

I'm not sure that staying busy is really helping any. I feel like an emotional wreck. I'm so up and down. Happy then sad. Okay then angry. Irritated then needy. It's really quite ridiculous, but I have been assured by several it's all normal {{so, that's good, right?}} This inherent need to stay busy has been very helpful to something more than crossing shhhtuff off my to-do list, it's also great for weight loss. I'm down another 3.5 pounds. What is that saying? "Busy hands, happy mind"? Just need to find enough household projects and crafts to keep me busy until October and I'll be great AND a size two...

Easy, right?

Mandatory Fun

Today is a pre-deployment fair at J's work. We {{the girls and I}} aren't going. But J has to. For us Mandatory fun usually means I'm getting dragged along so J doesn't have to go by himself or at all {{Mandatory fun: n. Usually something that makes you want to stab yourself in the eye. Never really fun, but its mandatory you have to be there}}. Today I got out of it. Last week I wasn't so lucky. Last Monday was the first Pre-deployment briefing {{I'm sure there will be five more covering the exact same information in case you weren't close enough to hanging yourself the first time around.}} As these things go, it was also mandatory. Either the soldier or his spouse/significant other needed to be present. Since J is not a fan, the responsibility was mine {{yaaaay.}}

It is customary for these things to be held in the post movie theater. A ridiculously large space, so the attendees can fill the first two rows, for a ridiculously long PowerPoint presentation. It brought back lots if memories of AIT. Sitting in a hot theater with smelly Privates learning about how to talk in the third person {{don't hate, some of those people were REALLY funky! and not hot 70's funky either!!}}.

I managed to get everything I needed from the whole ordeal in the first ten minutes. They discussed the way things happen if there is a non-life-threatening injury, a serious injury and a casualty. {{They used words like "casualty" and "expired" when they were talking about death. Probably to keep people like me from bursting into tears and running from the room.}} This part was helpful. As a Process-Girl its nice to know what the process would be if... And except for the one creepy part where the volunteer stood up and said that if something happened, she would know the names & ages of my children, my animals, and the layout of my house before the informing posse even left {{creepy!}}. Then she said she would take care of paying all of our bills, grocery shopping and anything else that wouldn't get our attention in the first few days {{I get it. I'm sure that's comforting for some people. But I've already instructed people to make sure those people don't come in to my house if... For some reason I find that such an invasion of privacy.}}

The remaining two hours and twenty minutes of the "brief" was just the gravy on an *awesome* sandwich. I am a snooty wife about these things. I hate them. I don't participate in the FRG because the only experiences I have had with the FRG have been... not good. Too many bored women with no life, so they feel the need to try and be all up in yours. But I do think it is important to at least know who your FRG is in case you need them for something. So off I go to this ridiculous "briefing". I knew I was in trouble when we walked in and there was a power point presentation up. {{They don't call it death by power point for nothing.}} I think my eye was twitching and I was drooling by the half time break. Then we got a nice forty five minute presentation on how to talk to the media. {{Those damn paparazzi just refuse to leave me alone!}} By the time the last speaker got up, I was trying to decide which rafter I was going to hang myself off of. When she finished I was like , "Ok, great now the FRG will introduce herself." Nope. She wasn't even there. {{Commence with the self eye stabbing.}} So I politely declined my husbands invite to today's "fair".

I've had my share of mandatory fun for the month, thank you.

Projectopia & A Wonderful Milestone

I'm taking a break from removing a thousand upholstery tacks {{not an exaggeration, I actually thought it was a tack strip. Nope.}} I need a minute so my poor arms can rest {{Yes, A. You were right. Ouch!}} and I thought I'd write down a few things for you about living in Projectopia {{a.k.a. the place where there are currently ten things going on/halfway finished/or given up on - usually your desk.}}. When I got on to post I found that my blog had reached an AWESOME milestone over night: 5,000 hits!! You guys Rock! So high five yourself and read on! ;0)

I blame Pinterest for this new need to take random crap and turn it into cool stuff. Most of the things pinned look really easy. Making something look easy I guess is easy to do. Having an idea and following through with it is the hard part. {{Especially in this house.}} Thinking things will be easy {{like say, sitting down to take a tack strip off}} and finding out how hard it truly is, {{a thousand individual tacks that have to be removed ONE AT A TIME}} is all part of the adventure of DIYing, No?

Here is the current list of Projects I would like to complete and start here in the next 30 days:

Painting: {{Every room in this house needs it, but we are starting with these ones}}
The Living Room
The dining room
My office {{Mom's Hide Away}}
The upstairs Hallway

Sewing: {{this may or may not be a joke. I am getting a sewing machine soon and I have NO IDEA whether or not this will be a hobby I'll actually enjoy.}}
Curtains For our French Doors in the Office
Roman Shades for the office, the master bathroom and for Bug's Room
Plus a whole bunch of crafts I've pinned that look easy.
Book Slings for Bug's Room

Crafts:
The frame for the map {{We have to make one ourselves. Having one made that big would cost BIG!}}
Reupholster An Office Chair {{The one with all the damn tacks}}
Make Pallet Furniture {{with pallets we thoughtfully 'picked up' in our neighborhood}}
Clean up and paint an old Army box
And there is also this little beauty {{while excusing the messy garage, of course}}

Be jealous at its awesomeness, before I have even done anything with it.

I've got myself quite a To Do list. Things to keep me occupied during the first few weeks of the deployment. I can't wait to try some of these new things and see how they go and how I like them.

Guess for now I'll get back to pulling tacks.

Yaaaay.

“It takes true courage to be a dove, but no honor accrues to being an ostrich”


2.0's two month check up was this morning. She turns nine weeks today and it seems like she was JUST born! She is growing like a bean stalk and will soon be a giant. She is already 24" long and she weighs almost 14lbs. When the nurse asked if I had any concerns about her eating habits I asked if she needed a diet.

When the doctor came in we went over all of my questions about 2.0 and then I asked one about Bug. I've been through a deployment alone, never with kids. Especially, not such a super daddy's girl. So, I asked the Doctor about how best to prepare Bug for J leaving. She told me to tell her that he's going to work and that we'll see him {{on Skype}} and talk to him when we can. Then she said, "The best way to prepare her, is to make sure your prepared. Are you ready?" To which I instantly *burst* into tears.

Are you kidding me? Am I ready? For my husband to go replace a unit that has lost 56 soldiers in the last 12 months? In a country fighting a war that most of America has forgotten about? Hmmm.... Nope. Actually, I've been blissfully ignoring all those things hoping that the heavens would open, something miraculous would happen, and I wouldn't have to deal with it. An ostrich, with it's head in the sand. I've been doing good too. I made it through all the deployment questions from family over Thanksgiving. Managed to squeak through Christmas without being an emotional wreck and even managed to have a happy & hopeful New Years. But I can't do it anymore. It's time to pull my head out of the sand and face reality. He's going. And it sucks.

After a minute I had composed myself enough to make jokes when she asked if I had lots of friends and family close. Then she told me that she would be my friend and suggested I drop the kids off at daycare, go pick her up and we could have a beach day {{hahaha! that's even more absurd now than it was in the office}}.

I cried all the way home. My husband is REALLY deploying....

and it REALLY sucks.