Where has the time gone...

Well hello again blog. It has been far to long since I have last posted. I do have good reasoning though but decided today was just as good as any day to post my first blog of 2011. In the last 6 months I have had lots of ups and downs and twists and turns and can finally say that I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In September we moved from our crappy 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment that was 4 ft underground to our amazing 3 bedroom 2.5 bath town home. It is about 400 more square feet and comes with a one car garage!!! It was one of the best decision we could have made for our family per say to move and get out of the hell hole, but financially it was not all that smart since we had to pay 3 months of rent in one month instead of just 1 month of rent. We finally got caught up and back on our feet like we wanted to be but it was a long tiring battle and there were days I swore we were going to go without the necessities because we just couldn't afford them. Thankfully we got it all taken care of before it was baby time.
Abbie became fully potty trained that month and has only had 3 accidents since then. She wore pull ups for about 3 days and was done. I am so thankful that we have had the last 6 months of no diapers and that we will NOT have 2 in diapers at the same time!! :)
(I also met some not so good people this month but very quickly got them out of my life. Did NOT want a repeat of the past)

October was a good month for us. We got fully settled into our house, spent a lot of time together as a family since the ship was still in dry dock there were no under ways just duty days. We took Abbie to a pumpkin patch, and to a corn maze. She loved it and even learned how to pee outside since we were stuck in the middle of the corn field and couldn't find a way out to find a bathroom so she went outside. Very interesting and rather funny but definitely not something we ever want to make a habit of lol. She loved the Halloween season especially all the candy and making cupcakes with me and finding out on the 28th of October she was going to be a big sister to a little baby brother. It was a very exciting day for all of us. Later that week we carved our pumpkins (They turned out great!!!) and went trick or treating and she finally at about the 5th to last house said trick or treat. She was Alice in Wonderland and looked adorable.

November was a fun month as well. The ship was out of dry dock and finally back in Everett so Jack didn't have to drive so far or take the bus to Seattle for work!! Definitely helped with gas. Not a whole lot really happened until about 4 days before Thanksgiving. Washington has their 1st snow fall and boy was there a lot. It was gorgeous. Abbie and I sat staring out the window for about 2 hours before she fell asleep right there just watching. It snowed again on Thanksgiving and was completely gone and melted away by the next day :(. On Thanksgiving I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jack, Abbie, and 4 guys off the ship plus myself. We had Turkey, Dressing, Potatoes, Gravy, Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Yams, Pumpkin and Cherry Pie. It was amazing and I was so proud of myself!! My 1st 15lb Turkey was AMAZING :)

December oh how I love this month. SOOO much to do so little time and I get a year older... Oh well Santa was very good to Abbie this year and I was very thankful we were able to make her last "only child" Christmas a great one. Since next year she will have to share Santa with her baby brother Matthew. In December we did a lot of cooking and decorating and singing carols and Christmas light looking. It was just a great month! We did have to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve because Jack had duty Christmas but it was still a great day and at least we were all together as a family. Last year and next year he will be deployed for Christmas :(. My Birthday was amazing as well. My Great Grandpa used to make me a Chocolate Cake with White Frosting and red hots saying Happy Birthday. Well he passed away on December 20,2007 and I have not had a cake like that since. The night before my birthday I told Jack that was one of the biggest things I missed on my B-day. So that night after I went to sleep he went to the store and bought the stuff to make that cake. I guess he messed up the first one and had to make another but it was so amazing and the best birthday gift I could have gotten. I made Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo for dinner and we drank sparkling cider as our wine!! We rang in the New Year 3 times that night. Once for the East Coast since we used to live there, Once for the Central Time because that is where we are both from, and then once again for our Pacific time. It was a great Birthday and a great way to bring in the New Year.

January 2011... WOW I am now 23 years old, been married for almost 4 years, have an amazing 2 1/2 year old daughter and expecting my handsome little man in only 2 short months. Where did the time go. I remember turning 12 and thinking Y2K was going to wipe us all out. Not a whole lot really happened in January. We filled our taxes and finally bought the rest of the baby stuff we needed but other than that nothing to exciting. Only 8 short weeks til I meet Matthew Dominic for the very first time!!!

February this month has been both good and bad for us. Jack and I finally got to spend our 1st Valentines Day together EVER in the 5 that we have had this was our 1st. We didn't do the traditional dinner and a movie. Nope instead we took Abbie to Chuck E Cheese and OMG did she love it. It was such a great idea and we had an amazing night. The next 5 days would become very hard for us. Our 7month old Cat Carmen had stopped eating and was getting sick. Not hair ball sick but real cat vomit. She was still acting the same and pooping and peeing just not eating. I decided to wait til Monday morning if she still wasn't eating by then I was going to take her to the vet. Well Saturday morning we woke up and she was not doing well at all. She wasn't moving and hardly breathing. We rushed her to the vet but .45 miles away she passed away in my arms. It was the saddest thing. We still went to the vet to make sure and they said she either had distemper or cancer. If she had cancer there would have been nothing we could have done for her because we can't afford kimo for an animal. They offered to take care of her for us or we could go home and bury her ourselves. We decided to do it ourselves. I had to take Abbie out of the room because I didn't want her to know the kitty had died and was being put in a box. It was very sad and I went on a full blown cleaning spree once we got home. Only thing that kept me from crying. Thankfully Jack was home and didn't have to leave to go underway til Monday. On another animal note... 2 days before our poor Carmen left us we rescued an abandoned puppy that was living in her own poop and pee and had a bag of food just poured on the floor for her to eat. It was a very sad situation and at first I did not want another animal but I couldn't just leave this poor dog to live like that. She is part Pug part Chihuahua. She is black with one white line down her belly. She was a blessing in disguise for Abbie. Instead of her being focused on where Carmen went she has been more focused on helping with the new puppy who we named Trixie. She is a great puppy and doing pretty good on potty training. We took her to the vet for her shots and de wormer and they said she was about 8 months old and very healthy. That was great news after what we just went through. I had a Dr's apt on Thursday and they said I was 1.5 cm dilated and 50% thinning. Hopefully that means not much longer til Mr. Matthew makes his debut. Jack has been gone for a week now and wont be back for a little while longer and I am just ready to have him home and to have my water break. I want to meet my lil man and for Jack to spend as much time with him before he has to leave for a while with the ship. All in all February has had lots of ups and downs but we made it out alive and that is all that matters. Looking forward to March and the many many months to come. I will try my hardest to blog more but IDK how often that will happen once I have 2 little ones to take care of.
Until next time we are just "taking things one day at a time."

Thanks for reading!!