New Year's Eve 2015

Happy 2015!!!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve.  I know I sure did!

 I know, I know, you're dying to know what I did that made it so wonderful.  Luckily for you, this blog is my online journal so I'm going to tell you!  

Are you ready?  Are you really ready?  Because I'm not sure you're going to be able to handle my NYE plans.

We did jack shit!  (Where on earth did this phrase come from??).
Okay, so that's a lie.  We didn't do nothing but we stayed in.  My 21 year old self is hanging her head in disappointment.  And I don't even care.  In my early 20's, I wouldn't have dared stay in for NYE.  My friends and I were those people who would drop $60+ to get into a club and drink the night away to not even remember ringing in the new year.  (Don't judge me, only three drinks got me pretty drunk.  I was and always will be a light-weight).

But those days are far passed me.  We didn't stay in because we had nothing better to do.  That's what I wanted to do.  We didn't even ask any of our friends what their plans were.  I just wanted to sit at home in my jammies and ring in the new year with my (lame) non-alocholic beverage, my (sick) cute husband, my pups, and this little wiggly baby in my belly.
(Disclaimer: I don't want always want to stay in on NYE.  That's just what I preferred to do this year.)

We weren't completely lame though.  We did go out to dinner (the above pictures were taken just before going out), which was delicious, but I also forgot that my already smaller than average stomach (thanks cancer) is even smaller now (thanks baby), so I only ate about 1/5 of my meal :(  And then I had to sit there and watch Nick drink his delicious alcoholic beverage and eat his meal for the next 25 minutes.  Torture.

Then it was home to bum around.  As you can see below.

That picture above on the right?  Yep, total accident but it makes me giggle.  And makes me wish my cheeks weren't so freaking fat and my face was thinner (Have I mentioned that I think my already chubby face is getting more chubby with this pregnancy.  Barf!  And it's littered with acne.  Double barf!  Thank goodness for makeup!  The wives tale that girls steal your beauty?  Big fat bullshit!  I'm having a boy and he's definitely inflicted my body with the ugly.)

We got home, changed into our jammies (poor Nick was miserably sick), sat our butts on the couch, put Frozen in the Bluray (Nick has been wanting to watch that again for some reason), and played 'War'.  As in the card game.  Nick hadn't played in so long that he forgot how to play.  How you forget such a complex game like war (note the sarcasm) is beyond me.  But after an hour, we gave up.  It was never ending, he was getting frustrated and I was getting anxious.  So then we just watched the movie and awaited 11:30pm when we turned it off to watch the festivities in New York, which sucked by the way.  But I also think we were watching the crappiest of the televised live shows so that's our fault.

Then it was countdown time!!!  No better way than to start the year than kissing my sweet husband!
(I'm pretty sure this is the moment I got sick).

 Cheers!!!  I'm sorry, Sparkling Mango-Something is not as good as normal champagne.  But I'm not ballsy enough to risk the real stuff even though so many say one glass here and there is okay.

So here's to the new year!  We sat there talking a little bit about what this year has in store for us, which ultimately is going to revolve around preparing for our sweet baby boy's arrival and then attempting to be the best parents we can be and loving all over him!!!

And then we were in bed by 12:30am.  And it was perfect!
(and we slept until 10:30am the next day and it was even more perfect!)

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  (you know, 6 days late)

a 2013 Recap

(Why is blogger changing the color of my image?!  I've uploaded this image, in varying forms, multiple times.  It should be white.  I finally got fed up, yelled a big eff you blogger, and just left it this way.)

And now I'm too frustrated to write a proper introduction so how about I just jump right into my we recap the year of 2013 in blogland?  I figured this would also be good because I have a few new friends reading my blog and in my last recap was done in very poor blogger fashion with zero links or photos.  You know, all the things that make a post interesting.

I will be completely honest is telling you that I thought 2013 was going to be a crappy year.  It started out that way so why I think anything differently?  First of all, it started with an injured dog and a huge vet bill to accompany it.  In addition to that, I started the year out sick.  Hooray for 2013!

But the end of the month started looking up for as Nick finished Primary and we attended his platform selection where we found out his fate (complete with a cute video) in the aviation community (hence the "rotor blades" part of my blog title.)

In February, I found out if I ever wanted to stow away in Nick's seabag, it was possible.  I dealt with another impending diagnosis anniversary date and ended up having a good day and added another wonderful Valentine's Day celebration to the books.

Sadly things took a huge downward spiral as I encountered my very first cancer scare since being in remission.  I realized the hardest part of everything isn't anything pertaining to yourself, but instead, to you family.  It was a difficult time and my poor brain was all over the place.
Thankfully I had Nick's birthday to focus on and the start of his helo training and the next phase of our military life.

My health issues continued into March, unfortunately as I underwent some testing to get answers.

But again, there were some good things to happen to take my mind off the fears.  For instance, I got a new job and  we celebrated Easter.  I also finally wrote out why I blog and wrote one of my more popular posts about not being an asshole and thinking before you speak.

April started out wonderfully as I learned it was all, in fact, a cancer scare and I was still cancer free.  Nick got to take his first solo in his helicopter and I attended another Relay for Life in Pensacola Beach.  My crazy honey badger celebrated her 2nd birthday and I share my thoughts on whiny babies on social media who are just unhappy with their lives.  I also tried out a couch cleaning method that just so happens to be my most popular post thanks to Pinterest.

It seems to be a pattern of partially good months and partially shitty months.  May started out as great as it could because family came to visit us!!!  My dear sweet husband also celebrated MSAD and Mother's Day with me.  I also got to do some DIY and help throw a beautiful bridal shower for my dear friend.  Sadly, the month ended horribly as my Grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and it quickly turned into the hardest thing I'd ever have to deal with.

At the beginning of June, I traveled home to be by Grandpa's side during his surgery.  (During this time my best friend also showed me why she is more than a best friend.)  I had to say goodbye to Grandpa and head back to my home in Florida.  We were cancer buddies and it was hard to not be there with him.  I didn't mention it in the blog because we were keeping things private but it was now that we learned the severity of his cancer.  It was this surgery that the surgeon told us, worst case scenario, we'd have Grandpa another one to two years.  However,  by mid-month he was doing great and we were confident he would win his battle.

Thankfully upon returning to Florida, I had my anniversary to look forward to even though the real celebration had to be postponed.  But I recapped my 2nd year of marriage and page views suggest that was popular for some reason.  We ended the month with a trip to Meridian, Mississippi to see one of our best friends, our little brother (from another motha, obviously) be winged!

This was  MUCH better month!!!  Mom came to visit (woman is seriously my best friend) and later that month, Nick's family visited (which ended with my first ever allergic reaction).  The highlight of the month was when Nicholas and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary...in the most magical place on earth!!!  I was no longer a Disney Park virgin!!!

And although they aren't talked about too much on the blog, the doggies were still doing well and we actually enrolled them in more training.
July had one tiny hiccup as Grandpa started treatment and experienced a few complications but I was looking forward to seeing him the following month.
We ended the month with one of our favorite things, the St. Louis Cardinals!  We took a quick trip to Atlanta where we watched them take on the Braves.

This was by far the worst month of my year.  Actually, the worst month of my life.  It didn't start out too badly as I underwent another endoscopy, but that all came back clear and good bill of health!  I recapped my trip home to St. Louis, which had some fun parts to it.

Sadly though, the anticipation of Grandpa receiving his gift from us never happened because everything took a huge downward spiral as Grandpa got sick, ended up in the hospital and passed away.  It was the hardest thing I have ever experience and now, 5 months later, I'm still struggling.  His wake and funeral were like an out of body experience and I didn't truly believe it was happening.
I took the longest and saddest plane ride of my life back to Florida but was able to put a smile on my face and feel the most pride I have ever felt in my life as I witnessed my amazing husband accomplish his dreams.  Only our wedding day can compete with the joy I felt as I pinned those wings onto his uniform.  The month ended with us officially getting our orders to report to our next home.

The month started out with some nostalgia as we had our two year anniversary of living our first real home as a married couple.  The home we were just weeks away from leaving.  We packed up our life and moved to Jacksonville (after house hunting for a week and putting in an offer, which I didn't talk about on the blog just yet because I didn't want to jinx our contract).  After moving in with friends, I went to stay with my sister while Nick was at SERE and I talked about what I learned while living in Pensacola.  I also poured my heart out about my thoughts on missing my Grandpa.

This was a good month.  It started out with what every blogger has, an obligatory post about how fall is now upon on.  We spent half the month living with friends and I talked about why being homeless suck but on October 17th we finally closed on our beautiful home and officially became homeowners.  A few nosy people questioned why we bought and I shared those reasons, which has prompted so many of my friends to begin looking into buying as well!  Hooray for homeownership and being a good influence!  We bought the girls Halloween costumes and tortured them for some photos and of course made them wear them on Halloween as we handed out candy.  I joined my first blog link-up and wrote about all the things I will do someday.  Ironically, the second and third to last things have been done!!!  Pat on the back for Melanie!  And because I loved that first link-up so much, I participated in another Halloween related one about all my sins.

I started the month out promising you all a home tour.  I provided you one of my beautiful kitchen but sadly, I failed and that's the only one I've given you since!  But along the lines of a new home, our dogs got to see how awesome their new neighborhood was when they hosted a doggie swimming party for them!  The biggest highlight of the month was landing a dream job and then buying a new car!  And just like every November, we celebrated my remission anniversary (what we cancer survivors call a Lifeaversary) and my 29th birthday ... twice!!  We ended the month with a short but sweet trip back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving.

And now we're recapping current events.  At the beginning of the month, I blogged about Nick finally beginning training on his new helicopter (and I ended up lying in that post).  I wrote two blog posts that were pretty much just getting to know me and one was done in a fun fashion.

Pretty much every other post was about my meth-like  addition to Christmas.  We put up the tree, celebrated St. Nick Day, baked cookies, built a gingerbread village, went on a Christmas sunset sail, and didn't send out Christmas cards. I also had two dog posts in one month!  Of course one revolved around my honey badger dog and the other was about how impossible photos with them are.  Of course, this blog wouldn't be a true representation of a human being if I didn't dig inside my mind and heart and write something raw and not all sunshine and rainbows.  Which is when this post happened.  Of course I didn't stay down as I recapped our visit at home for the holidays, gave you a glimpse into our Christmas celebrations, and blogged about our own Obie little Christmas back here in Florida.

Recap: My Birthday Weekend

I had the best weekend ever!!!!! 

Friday night wasn't anything super exciting. When I got home from work, I helped Nick prepare for his poker night.  Once all of his friends arrived, I headed upstairs to the office with my work laptop to do some work for a few hours.  Exciting, I know.  Sure, I'd have loved to celebrated my birthday that night with Nick, but I knew he really wanted a poker night so what would it matter?  I mean, realistically I was getting him the rest of the weekend so what was one night?  And they all had a lot of fun so it was worth it (And Nick won so I guess that is a positive too!)  Plus, I scored a bottle of wine (in a fancy, glittery bag) out of the deal because one of Nick's friends (whom I had only met once before) heard it was my birthday and brought me wine.  Good man.  Good man.

Saturday morning we lounged around in bed for a long time.  It's one of our favorite things to do. No rush, no need to be up.  Just laying there, cuddling, talking, and laughing (yuck, I know).  We eventually got our butts out of bed, got ready, and headed to the Jacksonville Zoo!!!!!!  Maybe that sounds lame to you, but I'm a giant kid at heart and this kind of thing is the perfect date for me.

Sadly, the zoo was a little bit of a letdown.  Don't get me wrong, Nick and I had a lot of fun, but I was expecting more.  I never really realized how awesome the St. Louis Zoo is.  How large it is, the number of animals they have, the look and feel of the Zoo itself, plus the habitats and exhibits.  I know it's rated #3 in the country and Jax Zoo isn't rated at all, but I was just expecting more.  I mean, they don't even have tigers!!!!!!  What is that crap?!  I also was not used to paying.  St. Louis Zoo is 100% free.  We paid $15 each for this zoo.  Lame sauce!

But like I said, despite being a little let down, we had a great time.  They didn't have tigers, but they did have a baby jaguar that was so incredibly playful.  We stood there watching them for a good 20-30 minutes.

We also got to pet stingrays.  I have never pet one (although one came swimming right by us in Pensacola Beach but that wasn't so fun considering it's stinger was very much in tact) and it was really weird.  They're soft and slimy. I knew they weren't going to hurt me, but every time I saw more than one swimming towards my hand, I kinda freaked a little.

We also got the pleasure of seeing two lions doing it.  Don't worry, I took a video :)  (The ant eaters were also going at it but who wants to see such a hideous animal having sex?  I opted out of capturing that one.  You're welcome.)  Please take note of the male lion roaring/moaning as he's getting it.

After the zoo, we headed to play some indoor, black light miniature golf.  I love mini-golf and since it started raining, our plan worked out perfectly!!!  Of course, I lost, but I was the only one to get a hole in one!

After golf, we ran home, changed clothes, grabbed some food and wine and headed over to Jenny and Matt's house.  She was hosting a small get together for my birthday.

(she makes the best cake pops!)

  I remember a while ago, Jenny had mentioned to Nick that she had an idea for my birthday and wanted to talk to him about it.  I figured this gathering was that idea.  But what she really talked to him about was much more awesome!  While sitting and talking, she asked if I wanted my present. I didn't know I had a present waiting for me, so she had Matt get it.  He set this giant box on the table and handed me a knife to cut it open.  When I lifted the top of the box, it's like unicorns and fairies came flying out to the sound of angels singing as this was staring at me

I have been wanting one of these for soooooooo long!  Nick has always said no because he said it's not a necessity and he thinks it's stupid expensive.  He is obsessed with bread so I tried telling him how much awesomeness I could make to fill his bread loving belly.   No dice.  Didn't work.  

Attempt number two: Jenny makes delicious pretzels that he loves and I told him that if I had a KitchenAid mixer, I could make those pretzels.  He said he'd just settle for eating them whenever Jenny made them. So the next step was to demand Jenny stop telling him when she makes them, sending him home with some, etc.

Jenny has even tried to help me convince Nick of all the reasons we needed one.  And it finally worked!  She presented the idea of going in on it with him for my birthday and he agreed.  So now I'm a proud owner of this beauty.  I told Nick has a thank you, the first thing I will make are Jenny' pretzels.  (Yes, I know I can make it without a mixer, but who the heck wants to knead dough?  Not I!)

So can you say best husband and friend ever?!  I have to find some major way to make this up to to Jenny.  (And now I understand why when we were in TJ Maxx's check out line, Nick pointed to one of these, a red one, and said "Don't they have that in a lot of colors.  What color would you want?"  I didn't think anything of it (since he's so against owning one) as I explained silver of course, to match all our stainless steel appliances and other gadgets).

After the present, we made our way to the dining room for the most fun of the night.  Loaded Questions.  If you're easily offended, a prude, or not mildly inappropriate, it's best to not play with us.  The game gets pretty vulgar and ridiculous. But that's what makes it the most fun!!!  My face and abs hurt so badly by the time we packed up and headed home at 1:45am.  It was seriously the best part of the night. I am so thankful for such amazing friends.  Not because they gathered together for my birthday, but because we're all so alike, have way too many laughs, and we all love the same wine ;) (which we consumed quite a few bottles of) I am already looking forward to our Christmas party (or next gathering) to play the game again!!!!!!

I don't even know why we bother with the board.  I don't think we play correctly and even after someone "wins", we continue to draw cards and play.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day.  I headed out to spend my birthday money on a few small items needed for work and when I returned, we got to work on the house.  Nick wanted to organize the garage so we could pull the Accord in while we were out of town for Thanksgiving.  He did a pretty good job considering in about one hours time, the garage went from this to this:

(excuse the crappy iPad quality photos)

Sadly, my dining room now looks like this because he brought in a bunch of boxes that need to be organized and unpacked in the house :(

The other things I wanted for my birthday were to get the curtains hung on the patio door (so the boogeyman can't see me at night and so that I can walk around in my undies) and get some photos hung.  However, stupid me decided to wash our curtains because they kinda smelled like dog and dust....and they shrank :(  I had been wanting new ones because puppy Yadi and Vino have put tiny holes and runs in them when they were little so I guess now I have a legit excuse to buy new ones.  But for now, these will do. 

After the hanging of things (by Nick, of course, because I don't have the patience to measure.  I just slap things up and keep putting in new holes until the space looks even) and dinner (and some arguing, dirty looks, and eye rolls), we grabbed a bottle of wine and took ourselves a nice bubble bath.  I've always been a bath-hater and haven't taken one in over 10 years.  But that's a story for another post.  Anyway, we filled the tub with bubbles, settled in, poured some wine, and enjoyed the rest of our night (with a ridiculous Weim that can't ever not be involved in something.  This night, it was watching us, confused (because we don't take baths) and eating our bubbles.)

And that's my awesome birthday weekend with an awesome husband and awesome friends.

It seems everyone else had a great weekend that same weekend.  I saw lots of statuses and tweets about holiday decorating.  I'm being good and will hold off until after Thanksgiving.  But it's been hard.  And I'm way jealous of you all who got to sit on your couches and enjoy views of lit Christmas trees and decorations before Thanksgiving.  I joined you all this week.  Kind of.  My tree is up and lit.  But there's no ornaments, no tree skirt.  No decorations.  OH! I do have my new fabulous Christmas scent.  Y'all, it's the best Christmas scent ever!!  Head out to Wal-Mart and buy it.  Yes, I said Wal-Mart.  It's worth it.  It's the perfect blend of spiced apple and pine scents.  I have it burning in my Scentsy's throughout the house.  I plan to go back and buy many, many more.  Just in case they don't bring this scent back next year.