This is Me Challenge-Catch Up!

So I've decidedto do this challenge. I'm hoping that it'll help me to get to know myself a little better. I've missed the first 4 challenges so this is me, catching up.

The Cover-journaling says I put the MI in KIMI!

In My Honest Opinion

My Hobbies While Pregnant

Favorite Friends Of The Moment (FFOTM)-journailing says my sisters will always be my favorite friends...

Bath Night-EVERY NIGHT!

So, Rye is loving having the park right behind the house. She loves going out and playing, all the time. The thing is, the "floor" of the playground is made of shredded tire rubber. She comes in looking like a coal miner, every time. It is too funny.

Lawn Sharks of Hawaii

I'm not sure what kind of birds these are, but they crack me up. They're everywhere around here. They seems to especially love those who are out mowing their lawn. I'm assuming they go after the bugs and such after the mower has passed. It is just sooo funny to see them following around after someone mowing. We only had 3 but there are some guys who've had like 6-10 trotting behind them. Eric called me on his cell from outside and told me to look out the window and check out the birds that were "sharking him." Just thought I'd share the fun.

A reminder

I made this page for my little sister. We both feel as if we're not really sure who the real us is and we want to find out who that is and be that person all the time, no matter who is around. So, I made this page for her as a reminder. I'll be making one for myself, as well. I'll post that one too when I get it done.

Chic Mama??

A thought struck me the other day...will my daughters see me as I saw my Mom??
I LOVE my mother. But, back in the day I just thought of her as an old lady who I was sometimes embarrassed to be seen with. I wouldn't say that I was as embarrassed as some kids I knew, but there were times. I realized as I got older, however, that I really took my Mom and Dad for granted. They are GREAT people and WONDERFUL parents. I consider myself and my sisters very lucky girls to have them. But will my daughters feel that way about me? I am trying to prepare myself slowly for this. When will Rye stop looking at me as her best bud, stop proudly claiming, "That's my Mom," to the kids at the park...and start the, Geez Mom, c'mons.
I guess it's just that I don't feel old! I don't feel like a MOM! Do you know what I mean? I don't feel as if I should be frumpy. I still feel pretty close to what I did in my high school and college days. Did my mother feel like this? Did she feel like saying, "Hey! I am still young. I am not to be written off. I am still sexy." I prolly would have laughed had she ever said anything like that but I've been thinking lately. Now a days Moms do seem to be much more hip, if you will. More into the fashions and taking care of themselves into their later years. It's just something I've been thinking about lately. I'm not sure if I'll ever have the answers I'm looking for. I guess this is one of those things that you have to learn and deal with as you go. Take it as it comes. Maybe I'm never have the answers, maybe there are no answers. I just have to keep going and doing whats best for me and my family. That's really all I can do and let the Lord take care of the rest. Thanks for taking my rambling in stride.

Short & Quick

Just wanted to show you these adorable letters that I picked up for the girls to go in their rooms. I have been wanting to get some for a while now but have put it off. I saw these in a store by the coffee shop Layla had taken me to this morning and I HAD to get them. I already put up Rye's (only a little crookedly) and I'm thinking of putting AJs over her crib. WOOT!

Baby's got a brand new dress!

Alright, my brother in law is marrying one of the sweetest girls in the world next October. We're doing everything we can to be there for the wedding. I can't wait!! DaddyMac should be home in time, WOOT! I was at the MCX the other day and I saw this dress. It will be perfect for Seedling on that special day. It's very "fall-ish," it will go great with the wedding colors and it will be just the right size at the time. I had to get it. I know, I know...its over a year away. But what are the chances that there will be another perfect dress. It was the last one, so I got it. Sue me! I actually had to hide it behind a few other dresses for a day till I could go back and get it. I hid it well. My friend, Layla, went to try and find it and could not. Mwah-hahaha! Here are the pictures.

Fort Hase Beach

We went to the beach that's in walking distance from our house today (finally). It was nice. The water is a little rough but it was a great time and I'm sure we'll be heading back there soon. Here are some pics from the outing. I left my favorite on the top.
Hope you like them....

Two new pages...

So, I did two new layouts today. It's hard for me to get into it when I'm by myself. I definitely like the names page better than the it's a girl page. There is journaling across from the u/s pic at the bottom, I know I should have put a box of paper to journal on, but I wasn't sure what color to go with, so if anyone has any ideas on that, I'd appreciate them, thanks. I'm sure it could use some embellishments, but I just don't know what to do or where to go...so help me out, please (seriously, I'm begging you)!

Menu Plan Wednesday??

Alright, I know I'm a few days late...but I thought I'd share what we've been having as it's turned out to be a pretty good week.

So, I'll give no days, just what we've been having...I never stick to days, blah!
We've had (so far)
~Bruschetta Chicken Bake, Green Beans, Caesar Salad & French Bread
~3 Cheese Hamburger Helper & Crescent Rolls
~Teryaki Chicken & Steak Kabobs (w/ peppers and mushrooms,) Homemade Mac n Cheese (I have the recipe for this, some friends of ours came over and made us dinner cuz they wanted to use our kitchen, so we got free food, woot,) Garlic Bread & Sour Cream-Strawberry Surprise.
These are what's coming up the rest of the week...
~Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, HJ Mashed Potato Casserole, Corn & Crescent Rolls
~Enchiladas (I don't know what's going with this as the same friends I mentioned above are coming over tomorrow and making them, more free food, can't beat that)
~Hamburgers & Hotdogs (on the grill,) Fruit Salad & Chips
Then we'll have a night of leftovers, maybe on Saturday...not too shabby for having payday in the middle of the week.

Jumble Bumble

There are a lot of different things I want to share with you in this post. First, Blossom took her first spelling test last Friday @ school...she got 100% right, plus the bonus word. WOOT! Here is a scan of her test. I am so proud of her. She had a hard time with tests at school last year. I think the Hawaii pace is just right for her. She did add an extra "cat" into her sentence area, but other than that it was perfect. She was very excited to hang it on the fridge and show it off to her Daddy! Sorry if it's a little hard to see.
Next, I had to share this, I thought it was too funny. Most of you know how into animals and dinosaurs Blossom is. It's very funny. While most girls want pink and princesses to decorate their room, Blossom wants mammoths and wild animals. She was playing in the living room the other day while DaddyMac and I were taking a short nap. I came out to check on her and make her a snack and this is the scene I found on the couch. I could not stop laughing. I had to grab the camera and take a pic of it.
Yes, her prehistoric lions are actually gnawing on her blue whale. She seems to have no problem in accepting that animals kill each other for food and such things. She says she wants to be a wildlife biologist when she grows up. If this is not just a phase and it is something she continues to show interest in as she grows up, I would be delighted. I used to want to be a vet growing up but I, unlike Blossom, couldn't get past seeing hurt animals...even if it would be to help them.
Next, I made a name sign for the baby. A little early yes, but I guess this just kind of shows that I really am thinking that this will be her name. I can't wait to meet her.

We got our new dining room table and chairs delivered yesterday and yours truly spent the day putting them together. This is nothing new, I have put together most of our "assembly required" furniture. DaddyMac just doesn't have the patience and I enjoy the puzzle-like directions, most of the time. I am a little sore today, apparently I used some muscles that haven't been used in a while. DaddyMac was laughing at me last night. What with all the grunting and sighing I was doing when moving around, it had to have sounded pretty funny, though I didn't think so at the time. Here are a couple of snapshots of the new table. DaddyMac kept saying how much he loves it and that we should carry that dark wood feel through the rest of the living spaces. I told him that I was already planning on it. It's always nice when we agree.

And lastly, I know I've been putting up my belly pics every 4 weeks. I took these pics today because I loved the top I'm wearing. It's one of my favorites. So, now you know what I look like in everyday clothes. =) Isn't it funny how the words of a stranger can mean so much to us? I was in the commissary the other day, I hadn't showered yet (just one of those days,) I felt all grungy and yucky. A lady was rolling her 9 month old daughter by in her cart and said, "I just had to tell you. You are one of the best looking pregnant women I have ever seen." What a wonderful thing to hear when I was feeling so icky!! She asked how far along I was and seemed even more impressed. She said She got huge with all her girls and I told her that with Blossom I got pretty big myself, I just seemed to have lucked out this time. I honestly think it has something to do with my wide and long torso. Everything is just all squished up inside there. I also think the fact that I had been getting "in shape" before I got pregnant, worked out during my first trimester and have been at least walking these last two trimesters (and still do everyday) has helped out a lot too. I'm hoping it will help with the recovery too. I hated it last time. Anyway, I seem to have found a bunny trail. The lady was very nice and she just made my day. I have been starting to feel very uncomfortable in the last week or so and I'm beginning to realize that I'm going to have to start slowing it down a bit. I am, in fact, NOT superwoman. Imagine my surprise, heh heh! So, again, here are some clothed preggo pics of me, I am roughly 28 1/2 weeks along. How time flies...please let these last few months fly too.
Oh, please don't mind the bushy hair. I have to get some mousse. It's in that growing out afro-poof stage. Hahaha!

Our house...

K, I'm just going to put a bunch of pictures on here and try to explain. Some of the back rooms I had to take two pictures of so bear with me.
This first picture is of, what is technically, the back of the house, though it's our main entrance.

Next is the technical front of the house. The only person who has used this is the mailman or service men. Eventually we'll spruce it up a little with decorations. We'd like to get an American and a Marine Corps flag out there soon.

Our backyard is next. We are right up against a playground which has been great for Blossom. She's met some kids that she plays out there with all the time. It's really been helping her to be tougher and more independent. Eventually we'll get a swing back here.

This is the view when you walk in our back door. You basically walk into the dining room area. We are currently without a table. Our new table gets delivered on Monday and we gave our old one to a dude DaddyMac works with that was in desperate need. You can see into the kitchen, on the far left you can barely see this huge cupboard we have. We have so much storage in this house, it's crazy.

Here is more of the kitchen. Like I said a while ago, we have no dishwasher, but I am adjusting. Got it on a schedule, most days. I'm working on getting all my small pink kitchenaid appliances. I just ordered some pink mixing bowls. I can't wait to get everything. I'd like to get some pink and white curtains for in here, we'll see.

This area is behind the living room so we've made it the office type area. What's really nice is that from the office area and the living room I can keep an eye on Blossom when she is outside playing. The back wall is basically just windows.

Here is the living room. There is a wall that separates the living room from the kitchen that will be full of all DaddyMac's Marine Corps stuff (plaques, pictures and so on) Through that little window looking area is where that "technical front door" come is the house.

Next are the bathrooms. The first two shots are of the main bathroom right off the hallway. The bathtub in there is great, it is so comfortable. The third short is of the bathroom that is off the master bedroom.

Last, we'll look at the bedrooms. The master is first. To the right of the door is the closet. The bedroom closets take up a whole wall and give lots of storage. Then is Blossom's (there are two shots of her room to give a better view,) her closet is to the right as well, when looking through the door. I think, as of now, she wants blue stripes in her room. We're also looking at some woodland animal things that you can put on the walls. She's still way into animals and dinosaurs. The last two are of what will be Seedling's room. Got her crib and "changing table" set up, I can't wait to get the bedding on it. It's obviously being used for storage as well. We're looking for a full size bed (the mattress in the picture is a friend of ours we borrowed before our stuff came) to put in there for when we have visitors. All my scrap booking stuff is in the closet (to the left of the window) and I've bought a fold up table to keep in there and use. I'd really like to get one of those glider rockers to put in there as well.

Well, there we have it. If there is anything that you'd like to see in more detail maybe I could take a mini video of it and post it. Just let me know.

28 weeks...

Well, it's gone by pretty quick so far...but I have a feeling these last 3 months are not going to soar. I'm already starting to get uncomfortable, like that over-stuffed from food feeling, but all the time. I had two appointments over the last two days so I thought I'd post about them and just stick my belly pic in with them. I had my OB registration appointment on Tuesday and ended up getting my glucose test done. Everything came back normal from the results. Yesterday I went in for my "transfer in" physical and she ended up just using it as my 28 week appointment. I had to get an "exam" (all you ladies know just what exam I'm referring to) as well. My records have not made it over here from Virginia yet so they're repeating a lot of stuff. Looks like everything is fine. From the ultrasound I had a while back I know that Seedling is around 2 pounds now...how weird to think of that. I ended up getting my Rhogham shot yesterday too, after waiting for them to do a blood test to know for sure that I am in fact Rh negative. Blah! DaddyMac came with me which ended up being extremely helpful, as I left my military ID at home. Der! He got to hear her heartbeat, so that was cool...though I think he wanted to see an ultrasound too. So my next appointment will be at 32 weeks, Sept 5th. Alright, here are the belly pics...I'll do my 24 week one first, then the 28 week one.
I swear that the first picture is from 24 weeks...is it just me or do I look smaller? Beth says that maybe I'm just not as bloated. Which could definitely be, I was totally over eating when I was at the in laws house. There was just always something to snack on. The doctor did make the comment yesterday that I was ALL BABY! Which is kind of a nice change from when I was pg with Blossom. I was a float then! Well, I shared. Next post will be of the house. I'll try and put it up today after I babysit.

Long time, no blog...

It has been such a long time since I’ve been able to post on here. Even know I’m writing this a week before I’ll actually be able to post it. I feel like part of me has been cut off, not having television, internet and a home phone. It amazes me that it’s taken this long to get it all back. I’m so used to having it done within a week on the mainland that it’s going to take some time to get used to the slower pace here in Hawaii. Actually, this is the only thing I don’t like about the slower pace, not having my media. HaHa! So, instead of writing a bunch of smaller posts I’m going to write three larger ones (I was gonna do just two but I decided with the pictures of the house I’ll need one whole post for that). This first one will be about our day to day stuff, Blossom’s first day of school, the baby’s second ultrasound and DaddyMac’s work schedule, things of that nature. The second will be about bigger events, our trip to Hanauma Bay and Blossom’s 6th birthday. And as I said before, the third will be solely for pics of the new house. So, here is goes with post number one.
Our transition here went rather smoothly. I say rather because we had one little snag with the car. Two days after we got here, I checked online and it said our car was already here. So DaddyMac went and got it and started the process of having it switched over here. Our only moving snag, our car died within a week of getting it. Luckily it happened only a block from our house, instead of in Honolulu where we had just come back from. We thought it might be one thing but it wasn’t and this irritated DaddyMac to no end. He was such a grump for a few days. We took it to the Firestone that is here on base and got it fixed, turns out there was a problem with our distributor, we got ourselves a new one and it’s been smooth sailing since. The day we checked into housing we were offered a house, we went and looked at it the next day and accepted it. That same day we were called and told that our household goods were here and would be able to be delivered two days after we took possession of our home. The movers got everything in within 3 hours (they were great) and we started unpacking our stuff. In about a week we had it all out and set up (even the baby stuff) and we got a few little extra things to make it more comfy for us. We still have a few little things we need to get but we have time. Next subject…Blossom started the 1st grade on August 1st. The first two days she got a little teary eyed when I dropped her off but by the time I picked her up she was all smiles. Her teacher is great and Blossom loves her. It definitely seems a little slower of a pace than Virginia. Where last year she had a ton of home work from day one, here she seems to have maybe a page a day and it seems relatively easy. Though this is only the first week and they could be doing a little review. We’ll see how it goes. Monday she’ll start taking the bus to school, she’s looking forward to it and it’ll be nice not to have to try and work out car details or make her talk all the way down there in the morning. It’s not too far but as I’m getting more uncomfortable as my pregnancy moves along I have a feeling it will feel like 20 miles shortly. Here are a few pics from the first day.

K, I know that second one is sideways....sorry, I don't feel like fixing it right now though. =)
Next, DaddyMac went back to work on Monday and we have barely seen him since. He seems to get more easily frustrated here than back in Virginia. They’re doing a lot of training and more will be coming as they work up to their deployment. He’s gone over this weekend in fact. I guess the most that we can do is enjoy the blocks of time we do have with him. He’ll have a nice leave block end of December, beginning of January…for 3 whole weeks. This will be great as it coincides with Blossom’s Winter Break…yes, she gets 3 weeks off for Christmas! I know the flights would suck, but I kind of wish we could head back to see his family before he deploys, but I don’t see how that’s possible. Anyway…happy thoughts!!
Lastly (but certainly not least,) we were given a second ultrasound when I got here. I guess they like having they’re own measurements to work with. Everything looks great with our little girl. We have again changed our mind concerning the name. I almost don’t want to post about it as it could change again, though there is no way I could not post about it. Though I haven’t been looking for names really since choosing this one and when one does pop in my head it’s very easy to tell myself that we have her name already. As of right now, we’ll be calling her Autumn Josefine. We’ll call her Autumn (obviously) or maybe AJ…that’s up in the air. I really like this name. It’s pretty, it’s not too common but not too out there either. It was on my original list when I first found out I was pregnant but DaddyMac just kind of skimmed past it apparently. So, back to the ultrasound. We have confirmed that it’s a girl, check out the pic below.

We got two more pictures from the u/s, I’m only going to post one of them though. It’s a really great one of her face. The other was another profile picture but it basically looks the same as the last one. From the side she looks like she might have Blossom’s and my nose but from the front it looks like DaddyMac’s….this could be interesting. Here’s the face shot…Well, this is extremely long…so I’ll sign off and start the other one. Ha Ha Ha!