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)

NYE Plans & a {quick} 2013 Recap

Can you believe it's already New Years Eve??  I know I can't!  This year seemed to have flown by.  It's definitely been one of the best years yet.  Sure, there were some very unpleasant and downright depressing things to happen, but as always, we overcame each obstacle, or at least, we're still learning to.

As for NYE plans, well, I've never really been big on NYE.  Don't get me wrong, I like celebrating (let's be honest, I love any excuse to put on real clothes, gather with friends, and take photos.)  But I've never been one to go all out.  Back in St. Louis, everyone else was going to clubs and bars, paying between $80-$150 for a ticket to get in.  Not my thing.  I did it once and had no desire to do it again.  I'm much more of a house party goer when it comes to NYE.  The past two years I've actually spent NYE at my parents house with just them and my siblings.  And they were some of my best yet!!  

This year?  Well, it's 11am and our plans are still up in the air.  One of the wonderful things about military life is duty.  (that was said in total sarcasm for all my non-military readers).  Nick was scheduled for a 24 hour duty today.  Don't ask me what he actually has to do on this duty.  But it's on-call.  He had to go in at 8am this morning, will go back in this afternoon, and hopefully that will be the last time.  As of now, he shouldn't be there when midnight strikes. But it's the military, and if you're familiar with her, you know she's pretty much a demanding, selfish mistress to our men.  So odds are something will happen and Nick will be called into work just as the ball is dropping.  If that's the case, I'm going with him.  I'm bringing my New Years tiara and champagne.  I know Nick can't drink with me, but he's wearing that tiara with his flight suit.  I'm not letting the Navy cause me to celebrate husbandless.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of husbandless NYEs when it comes to deployments, but I won't be husbandless when he's in the same damn city!!!!

2013 was a year filled with some of the most joy I've ever experienced as well as some of the deepest pain I've ever felt.

 I had my first real cancer scare, we had my family and Nick's family come to visit (four times total!), we experienced our first military goodbyes to true friends we me made in Pensacola, as well as made new great friendships, I lost my beloved Grandpa and am still learning how to cope with it, I experienced one of the proudest moments of my life as I pinned on Nick's wings of gold in accomplishing his biggest life dream, we said goodbye to our first home and Pensacola, moved to Jacksonville FL, Nick began his aviation career in the fleet flying the MH-60R, we bought our first home together, we bought a new car, I landed my dream job, we took an anniversary trip to Disney World (my first ever), we roadtripped to Atlanta to watch the Cardinals take on the Braves, it was an amazing year for my teams in sports as our Cardinals made it to the World Series and Mizzou football, in their 2nd year in the SEC, landed themselves in the SEC Championship, I was able to travel to St. Louis four different times this year, we spent lots of time with my sister and BIL in Alabama, , I got another clear scan putting me 7 years in remission, I learned it's okay to let go of some friendships which allowed me to strengthen myself, I deepened other friendships, my sister got engaged, my best friend shared huge and exciting news with me, I adopted a much healthier lifestyle, we had our first ER vet free year, we got ourselves into a much better financial situation, I finally own a nice DSLR camera, and we ended the year yesterday by welcoming (from afar) our first ever niece into the world.

All in all, it's been a fantastic year.  My heart is still healing from losing my hero, but I have so many wonderful people, experiences, and life events to be grateful for.  Grandpa taught me to focus on the positive and live a glass-half-full (of manhattans of course) life.  And that's just what I will continue to do.  I look forward to 2014 and whatever it has in store for me!

Christmas Leave: An Overview

As always, time at home went way too quickly!!!

While we were home for a week and a half, we were soooooo busy!  When we go home for holidays, it's always that way.  The holidays make it really hard for us to be able to visit everyone we'd like.  Obviously our families are our top priority and I can thankfully say we spent lots of time with family.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to see friends.  Nick has not seen many of his friends since our wedding!!  We planned a Friday night out and invited all our friends.  It was just the simplest way to see everyone.  Unfortunately, that was the night Yadi injured herself and we spent all night in ER with her.  So we didn't get to go out with friends and cousins =(  And seeing as this was on the 28th, we were booked solid on the 29th and 30th, we weren't able to reschedule =/
(Although I did get to see my bestie, Jessie.  She doesn't live too far from me so I headed to her house early (7:30am) to hang out while she got ready and packed to head out of town at 9am for NYE.  It was quick but oh so great to see her.)

I also spent a good portion of my time at home sick.  It started out as flu like symptoms, but then changed more to sinus infection symptoms. Both equally annoying!!  I was pretty miserable.

But there were some highlights!

• Christmas Eve was spent with Nick's family and we had a really great time!

• Christmas Day was spent with my family and we ended the evening with our favorite game, Telestrations!!

Grandma and her girls

Grandparents with all their grandchildren

My Family

• My family got together another night for our regular Game Night.  Of course, it was loads of fun, with plenty of food

Playing some Just Dance 4

• We spent more time with Nick's family, also playing some games one night!
• Probably the most exciting part of our trip was seeing Wicked!!!  My grandparents gave Nick and I tickets for Christmas.  On the 27th, we headed downtown to the Fabulous Fox Theatre to watch my absolute favorite musical, Wicked.  I am OBSESSED with it!!!!  I listen to the soundtrack allllll the time.  Nick had never seen Wicked, yet he knew almost all the songs just because I'm always listening to it.  That evening, we met my Aunt Janet and cousin Melissa at their house and went out to eat at a steak restaurant, then headed to The Fox.  We walked around for a while taking pictures.  This place is one of the most beautiful places ever!!!!!!  I took some photos but they do NOT do it justice so I'll borrow some from other websites.

Photo from the stage
(Photo borrowed from {HERE} )

This is the view when you walk into the Fox.  That blue is the ceiling and it's GORGEOUS!  So much detail.
 (Photo borrowed from {HERE} .)

View from an upper balcony looking down
(Photo borrowed from {HERE} .)

The play was AWESOME!!!!  I'm not sure if my soundtrack is missing a song or they added a new one, but I do not remember the song "Wicked Witch of the East" from the last time I saw the play.  And  I KNOW it's not on my soundtrack.  It's a scene between Elphie and Nessa.  Has this always been a part of the play???

Anyway, Nick really enjoyed the play!  He said it was nice to see it because while he knew the songs, he didn't really follow them enough to know what was going on.  And now he does.  I'm happy he enjoyed it.  Maybe now he won't object as much to me playing it ;)

• As I mentioned, we got to spend a lot of time with family.  Just hanging out at my parents house, surrounded by five (and when my brothers were in town, seven!) dogs.  Laughing.  Drinking wine.  Watching HGTV.  Just pretending we were living back at home.  It was soooo nice to have Leah back home.  It almost felt like old times.  (And on our last night in town, we let the guys take command of the main television to play games while Mom, Leah, and I laid in one bed, drinking wine, watching tv, and just enjoying our last night together.)

Mom and the Bromance with the 5 pups!

With my cousins and sister at a good family friend Christmas Party

We had to head back to Florida on the 1st, so we spent New Year's Eve at home with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend and all our pups.  It was relaxing and perfect for a sick Melanie.  We did take some photos, but you can tell just how sick I am so I might leave those off this post lol

The drive home was awful.  I was so sick (and still am).  I FEEL awful because Nick only got 3 hours of sleep the night before.  We got up around 5:30am and left around 6:30am and he was so tired.  But I was so sick so he drove.  I slept/dozed about 9 of the 11 hour drive.  I just feel so badly!!!!!!  He was tired, it's a long drive, and it rained through a lot of it.  But he didn't complain at all.  Just did it.  I cannot thank him enough and I wish there were something I could do to show that because I just feel so freaking awful.  Not just that he had to drive the entire time, but also because I was sleeping so he didn't even have anyone to talk to and try to entertain him or keep him awake.  I'm a horrible wife.

That's pretty much it.  We had an AMAZING time and it was so incredibly hard to leave.  We are very, VERY thankful we were able to go home for such a long period of time (in terms of military leave that is).  We really cherish every second we're at home with family.  And now I'm counting down until we can return!!

To check out ALL the photos from Christmas at Home, visit the two links below.
 The photos are in two albums:
"Christmas 2012" AND "Christmas Leave in St. Louis"