hurricane season 2

As I sit here with the rest of the country, or at least the East Coast, watching the coverage on Hurricane Irene, I have mixed emotions.  First off, I'm very glad that I am well inland and don't have to worry about evacuating and getting the dogs and myself to safety (like we did last year).  Where I lived just a month ago (and would still be living now if it wasn't for my parents taking me in) has been evacuated again.  If you have been watching the news, any mention of Atlantic Beach, that's right where we lived.  Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach share the same island.  And the eye of the storm made landfall a mere 35 miles from our old house.  If you haven't been watching the news, here's a taste of what our little island is going through:

Which brings me to my next emotion, concern.  Looking at all of the damage that our area is going through, I worry about all of our friends that are still there.  I hope you are all okay!  I also can't help thinking about everything we own sitting in a storage unit there.  I find myself thinking we should have definitely upped our personal property insurance policy.  Only time will tell if we will need to be using said policy.  

Lastly I am just sad.  Seeing the beating that the island is taking truly breaks my heart.  Even though I moved away a month ago due to Pat's deployment, it still feels so much like home.  It is where we lived for the entire time we've been married, and it's the place that we have lived the longest since Patrick has been in the Marine Corps (a whole year!) as opposed to the other 1, 3 and 6 month stints we've had along the way.  When I think of home I think of Emerald Isle now, and it's washing away... The saddest news has been that the pier where we would take walks and Patrick loved to fish from has collapsed.

Apparently now that the storm has 'passed', as you can see from the video, she's not done yet.  I pray for everyone that has already experienced Irene, and those that have yet to, that you are all safe and sound, and don't have too much damage to deal with.  

thank you

I would just like to say thank you to the overly cautious Dr. I saw today.  He was concerned that I was measuring small, so guess what... he ordered an ultrasound!  The only other ones I have had were at 8 weeks (tiny spec) and well you know how the 18 week one went...  Anyways, I was more excited then concerned.

I got to see little man, and I am finally reassured that he is in fact human.  Got lots of good profile shots, and this new Dr's office even gave me a sneak peek of the 3D view.  Although, honestly, I could've done without that.  It kinda creeps me out.  Regardless, it was fun watching him!  He kept opening his mouth and sticking his tongue out.  So funny!  We also definitely confirmed that he is in fact all boy.

Turns out little man is just perfect!  All his measurements were right on track with his due date of Sept. 13.  The tech also informed me that he is currently weighing in at 7 lbs (apparently only the 50th percentile - sounds more like 90th to me).  It makes me feel better about my weight gain (the more he weighs the less I have to lose later right?), but it makes me really nervous for him to go the full 40 weeks.  I am currently taking any and all advice on how to induce labor...  Let the spicy food eating and daily dog walking commence.  This kid needs to come early!  We both need to be done being huge.

For now I will leave you with this photo of Winston trying out the little guy's newest (adorable) hat:

See, Jack isn't the only one who gets to have all the fun!

nursery rhymes

As baby's arrival draws nearer, I can't believe how prepared I am.  There isn't much left for me to do except wait.  The crib is all set up, and it's pretty adorable if I do say so myself.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the bedding (a la Pottery Barn Kids - a mixture of collections).   

 Stars & Stripes

And my Aunt Pegi made this beautiful blanket!

The dogs love play time in the nursery, the crib skirt provides a nice hiding spot for Jack...

Especially when Winston comes looking for him :)

And his little bookcase is all set and ready for play time too.  He's got loads of books and totes (also thanks to PBK) full of toys, blankets and stuffies.

This half of the room still needs a little work, but Winston is thankfully blocking most of the mess!

Not nursery related, but my stroller arrived the other day!  I spent so much time researching, because I only wanted one stroller, and I am determined to continue my half marathon training on the other side of pregnancy, so an all-terrain jogger was my go to.  This one is a Bumbleride, and I love it already.  It came with all the accessories we would need to purchase separately with other strollers (like a car seat adapter bar) and it has ample basket storage that is accessible even when the seat is laying flat.  So much other fun stuff too.  A special shout out to my husband for letting him talk me into this one :)

Of course, Jack had to test it out and give it the 'okay' before his little brother gets here.

hospital prep

Only about 3 more weeks to go before mister sharkie makes his appearance... crazy.  And let me tell you, they can't go by fast enough.  I cannot wait to have full use of my lung capacity, not wake up 5 times a night to pee, and I will thoroughly enjoy not having my esophagus on fire 24/7.  Oh yeah, and I can't wait to meet our little man.

In the meantime, I've had my hospital bag packed for about 2 weeks now.  It was pretty easy, thanks to my "hospital survival kit" that was a shower gift from my older sister (in case you didn't know - she's practically a professional at this whole having babies thing).  It included all kinds of travel sized toiletries, snacks, a notepad and pen, mints, a mini hairbrush and other fun things.

Yep, that went right into the hospital bag as is.  Along with some other essentials, it looks like dog toys also made the list:

It's obvious Jack thinks he's going to the hospital too.  He was sure to put one of his favorite toys (his old leopard slipper) right on top of the open bag.  I haven't had the heart to move it and have to break the news to him that the hospital most likely won't allow dogs in L&D.  Or anywhere else for that matter.

PS:  Don't you love the bag?  It's camo, and it's Pat's.  6 weeks and change down on the deployment!  Wish I knew how many more weeks were left...

the ultimate day

Today totally makes up for yesterday - TEN fold!  It's like my birthday, Christmas, our wedding day, every good thing, all rolled into one... and today is STILL better!  I got 50 (yes that is five - zero) whole minutes of Skype video time with Patrick today.  I really took it for granted when he was in Iraq and we could do it every day.  But after 5 weeks of not seeing his face, it was WONDERFUL!

He called first and said that he thought the internet would be working and we could chat.  So I had to walk out of "The Help" right in the middle so that I could get home and talk to him before he went to bed.  My dear old Dad came and picked me up and I'm so glad he did, because now I can't wipe the smile off my face!  Sorry Mom, I'll pay you back for the movie ticket :)

I got to see him, he got to see me, and the dogs.  They were so excited!  They couldn't stop looking for him around the room.  They were giving me kisses all over as if to say "it's Dad! it's Dad!"  How cute are they?!  Goodness, I'm so giddy right now I could just scream or something!  God bless technology.  And God bless the USA!

PS:  this is us from the 4th of July... so it's patriotic.

c'est la vie

That's what I keep telling myself... but today is what you would call "one of those days".  I will give you fair warning:  This post is strictly for venting, not entertainment or informational purposes.

We'll start off with the fact that the dogs got me up earlier then usual.  Then I had to wait a good 45 minutes at the Dr's office before I got called back for my appointment.  I counted 6 people that came in after me that got called before me.  One lady even came and went while I sat in the waiting room.  After a solid 5 minutes with the nurse (where she managed to let me know my stomach was 'bulging' - really lady what did you expect?) I waited another 30 minutes for the Dr.  Awesome.

Then I tried to have the car seat inspected, but I wasn't told you needed an appointment, so back home I went.  Only to get a phone call asking me to turn around and make the half hour drive again to get to the closest fire station that does these things.  I get there, and they dismantle my perfectly installed car seat and shove 3 foam noodles (you know the ones you use in the pool?  very scientific and following all safety guidelines) under the back end of the car seat.  Why you ask?  I still don't know.  It certainly didn't make it level, or anywhere near safe.  The seat was literally bouncing as I drove home.  That's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

As if that wasn't enough, I managed to win the worst wife in the world award.  I missed not one, not two, nope not three... but SIX calls from Patrick.  Apparently my phone is a piece of you know what, because it was just sitting in my purse on the other side of the room.  And it's not like I was doing anything to have missed the calls.  No, I was sitting at the computer, typing all that stuff I just told you about in an email to Patrick literally as he was calling. Six calls.  I still can't believe it.

Adding insult to injury, he did manage to call his horrible wretch of a wife back after she was done sobbing.  But our conversation was cut short as I was being called to dinner, and the dogs were going nuts and I was trying to get across the fact that I was on the phone.  So Patrick got to hear me yelling instead of saying goodbye and I love you.

I'm ready to go to sleep and have it be a new day.  This one sucked.

PS:  I would just like to add that even though we got cut off, clearly I am ecstatic that I got to talk to Patrick, for however short a time it may have been.  Also, what makes me smile through all this is that I have the best tissue in the whole wide world.  This next tidbit is for dog lovers only (as most anyone else would probably be grossed out), but Jack is always terribly concerned when I cry, and since that happened a lot after the 6 missed calls, he took to his job of cleaning me up.  I can barely get tears out fast enough before he licks them away.  And since Winston isn't a fan of kissing, he tries to make me feel better by climbing in my lap and snuggling when I'm sad.  I'm thankful for my puppy love on days like today, that's for sure.

one month

Well we are one month in to this deployment, and about one month away from being done with this pregnancy.  These two facts were celebrated by hanging the gallery wall in the nursery!  Hooray!  I take zero credit for this one, my dad (Bepa), did ALL of the work.  I still need to get in there with a level and fix a few of the frames, but for now... the incredibly poor quality photos (they don't do my dad's handy-work justice):

Ta Da!  The whole she-bang.

The frame with the flowers in it will have a print with his name on it... that is when we pick a name for him.

The 'M' is a gift from Auntie Carly, and it is for our last name, not his first.  He doesn't have one of those yet... But it came from this adorable Etsy shop.  The e.e. cummings print was a gift from my family, and came from yet another Etsy shop.  I love it because it makes me feel like Patrick is with us even when he isn't.  

I made the print in this one, and the dog bone came from Etsy.

I made the flag out of scrap wood we had.  This print is my fun way of having the alphabet in the room.  It was a gift from Mimi and guess what?! it came from Etsy.

As for all the pictures and canvases - homemade!  I know, I know - crazy dog lady here.  The poor kid's first word is going to be 'woof' or something like that.  My cousin Peg jokes that the baby will think he has 4 legs instead of 2!

Oh, and if you thought the 'shrine' to Jack and Winston ends there, you would be wrong.

Here's a crib sneak peak:

Mobile, Daddy Doll, and Dog Lovey

His big brothers will watch over him every night :)

This watercolor was a gift from Aunt Kelly, also commissioned by an artist on Etsy (not sure what shop) but it came to us all the way from Sweden!  You might recognize their pose from the photo in this blog post, amazing isn't it?!

That's all for now... Check back later for more pictures after I do some more organizing and cleaning...

bane of my existence

Remember yesterday when I told you about the gallery wall I had to hang.  Well today I am tackling that project.  I think I underestimated just how much work it would be on this 34 week pregnant body.  And with my OCD I highly doubt I will be finishing anytime soon...

Surprisingly the help is actually making it take longer...

Wish me luck!  And, hopefully I will have some nice, pretty pictures to post very very soon!

not quite nesting...

I feel like I have so much left to do to get ready for this little man to get here I am in a 'forced' state of nesting.  AKA I don't feel a strong urge to be organizing and cleaning, but I am pretending I do.  The end result ends up being me playing baby with Jack...

In the new bib I got for Jr... 

"If you think I'm cute you should see my dad!"

I absolutely could not resist

 And loving on the new play mat... especially the musical giraffe

Here's to hoping the real nesting instinct kicks in soon!  I have quite the gallery wall to hang...

paper anniversary

What does that even mean anyways?  Stationary?  A card?  Well my interpretation of it was:

Pens.

They go hand in hand with paper right?

We've got 3 weeks (and change) down on this deployment, and I celebrated that by mailing out 3 care packages to Patrick this week.  One of which included his glorious anniversary present (and card - so I guess I got the paper covered).  He won't get the package for a few weeks, but his internet access is terrible, so I'm quite confident this won't be a spoiler alert since he can barely check his email... but his gift was pens.  His favorite pens to be exact.  He had one that he loved, and he took it to and from work everyday.  He was very overprotective of his pen.  I had to ask permission to use it, and he kept tabs on it the whole time I was borrowing it.

As he was packing to leave, I made sure his pen was in a spot where it wouldn't be forgotten.  Well guess what, it was.  And when we got to the battalion, he was pen-less.  Even I didn't have one in my purse (and I always have at least 3).  We scavenged around the car and found one without a cap in the center console.  Beggars can't be choosers.  So off he went sans fave pen.  So I found it only fitting that his pen supply was replenished.  So there you go hubby - Happy anniversary!  One year down, forever to go.

In honor of our wedding day, 365 days ago... Some photos from the event.  Of course, thanks to Melissa Barrick for the gorgeous memories.