Anna Maria Island

In a few short weeks, Matthew and I will be jetting off to this amazingly beautiful place. I CANNOT wait! I have been there before but it was only for a day. So I can not wait to go and actually site see and enjoy the beauty of this place. This will be my first time traveling with Matthew, alone at that! Just through the airports though, we are meeting up with family! 

Does anyone have any tips or recommendations as to traveling with a baby. He will be 6 months old when we travel. And any tips on me doing this all alone? And anything I absolutely need with me that I would have never thought of otherwise?? I need all the tips and tricks. I am hoping and praying I don't have THAT child on the airplane who is crying the whole time. Although it is beyond my control, I am going to try to keep him happy. Hubs is a little nervous with it just being me and him flying. Because I will have him + all of his stuff + our suitcase. This is going to be interesting to say the least!

This little get away could not come at a better time though. Hubs will be extremely busy, so we will not get to FaceTime as often as we have lately, which I have gotten quite used to. But that just means it will be THAT much closer to the end of this deployment!! You have no idea how excited that makes me!!

Matthew will more than likely be crawling by then, but I am crossing my fingers he won't be walking yet so that Hubs can see that for the first time in person. But he is already good at standing, minus the balance issue, so we will see.

Any tips and recommendations are greatly appreciated!!

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Deadline is coming..

I have not really cried the entire 11 months, minus saying "see you later", well now that we are getting closer and closer I am just an emotional basket case. I have cried everyday for the past week, including this morning already, lol. I am not quite sure why. In fact I prided myself on being able to keep it together as well as I have. Now the littlest things make me cry, for example - Letters From Home came on the radio last night while I was putting Matthew to sleep. Now I get it is a sad song, but it is a song I have heard a bunch of times before, well cue last night - here I am feeding Matthew and rocking him to sleep, bawling my eyes out, over a song I have heard time and time again. Maybe my deployment blues are creeping up on me and they are not happy with the little bit of crying I have done, so bammm!

The days are getting closer and closer. Tomorrow is the deadline to ship anymore boxes to the Mr. Which in the military world, is a GREAT thing!! Now if only the weather can get it together so we don't have to travel out in the rain today.

Matthew FaceTiming with Daddy!

Saturday Night...

Our first deployment seems to be dragging on forever and forever. Quite frankly, I am over it. We are down to double digits finally, but I feel like the time is going extremely slow right now. And well, it is summer time. Summer time was always our time, we were always doing something exciting and fun. Like kayaking or zip lining or swimming and bonfires. I hate not having him here, I hate this deployment, I hate Afghanistan. I hate that he has missed so much of his little boys life already. 

We have survived the first 300 or so days just fine. But now I feel like were just dragging along. This is how our conversations go..

Hey babe..how are you?

Im good. how are you?

Good, just tired. Hows Matthew?

He's good...

I swear that has been our conversation for the past month or so, everyday. It is hard trying to keep two separate lives together. His army life and my mommy life just don't merge so well together. I can't wait to have an actual meaningful conversation with him again. I feel like were both just in a rut. We are both over this deployment. We are both ready for him to be home. We are both ready to be a family again!

Let me tell you though, trying to raise a newborn, work part-time, worry and take care of my soldier and worry about everything else life decides to throw at us is not easy. I feel like I have done very well though. With the end nearing soon, looking back I feel like I have done pretty well as a "single" mother. Matthew is amazing, beyond amazing. I love him so much. Long, stressful days suck but coming home and rocking my baby to sleep makes everything else okay.

I'll leave you with some pictures since I have been missing for so long!! I am off to read more Fifty Shades Darker! ;)

MIA

Hey everyone. I have been completely MIA the past few months. I feel like I have not had enough time in the day to do anything with a newborn. Well my newborn is now FOUR months old. It's crazy how time flies. And we are coming closer to the end of hubs deployment. Words can't describe how much I miss him. I am so ready to have him home again, for good. I promise I will post in a bit. I have a lot to say. Going through a deployment and being a "single" parent, I have experienced some things that are worth sharing.

LOVE TO ALL. 

I didn't forget about my blogger friends!!

Red Cross Is No Help

Okay, so I never thought I would actually have to ever make a call to the red cross for my husband. Sadly, we had to. His biological father passed away really suddenly. He went in for a chest x-ray for a cough that he had, only to find out he had stage 4 lung cancer. He passed away soon after finding out. Cue in, us making the call to the Red Cross. As of right now, I have nothing good to say about this entire experience of getting him home for emergency leave. In fact, it has been extremely stressful for everyone involved. And because they waited to make the call to my husbands chain of command because they "didn't have sufficient information", we may not make it in time for the wake because we have to travel to Boston.

Cue in my frustrations with the Army. They can't make this any easier by sending him straight to Boston instead of home and then having to get back on another plane almost immediately. All because he has to be flown into his "home of record". Its bad enough he didn't get to say goodbye, now we have to miss part of the funeral because they want to leave it up to the airline company on weather or not they will let him go straight to Boston...

I seriously just want to scream. Although words can't describe how excited I am to see my husband, I just wish it wasn't on such horrible circumstances. I have to look at it as some sort of blessing that we get to see him again. Well I should be packing, so I should probably get back to that. Goodnight ladies...

Help Me Out!

So can you believe my little boy is 2 months old already?!? Yeah me either. Its crazy how fast time is flying by. But that can only mean one thing, another day closer to having my husband home. I CANNOT wait!! 

A little bit into my everyday life, as I am trying to get ready for work (yes, I went back to work) and take care of a waking baby this morning, I get projectile vomited on. It managed to make it all in my hair, on the carpet, on the floor and all over him. Poor baby, hopefully he feels better now. Luckily, I had time to jump in the shower before having to leave to take him to grandma's. Oh, the joys of being a "single" mother as my husband puts it.

On another note, I am starting to get back in the swing of things with my Scentsy business. I took a break for a little while there when Matthew was born. So I am trying to build my clientele back up. I created a Facebook page to share warmers, scents, and most importantly my extra special deals I have when you place an order over a certain amount or host a party. So if you could "like" my page and think about placing an order. Scentsy candles really are so much safer in so many ways than regular candles. And yes, they are a little bit more "pricy" than other candles, but they last SO much longer. It is such a better investment if your a candle person. Even if your not, Scentsy products will easily get you hooked because they smell amazing and you can actually smell your scent you picked, unlike a lot of candles I have purchased in the past ;)

CLICK HERE & "LIKE" MY PAGE ;)

Kony 2012

Watch. Share. Donate. Spread the word.

Help them stop the evil of Kony.

A New Me

So after having a baby, I think its time to work on me..

I am trying to get the excess baby weight off, but

I wish the weather would get nice. I really have

no motivation to actually exercise inside my house

on a daily basis..

Yes yes, I can be really lazy. I have the drive,

just not the motivation. I need warmer weather

so I can go outside and run or at least open a 

window and get fresh air.

I am going to get my hair done soon.

Just as soon as we see how my son

does on a bottle for the first time.

We have yet to introduce an actual

bottle until now. Hopefully that goes

well.

But the whole reason for this post..

I want to invest in GOOD make-up.

Like from Ulta or Sephora.

But there are SO many choices, I

don't know how to choose. So I

am asking you, what are your favorites?

What are the must have brands?

Milspouse Friday Fill-In

1. What is your favorite/most unique anniversary/birthday gift from your spouse? suggested by Bel at Being a Better Me
I would have to say last year for my birthday. Hubs got me diamond earrings and the matching necklace from my favorite store, Kays :) But this year, I got an early birthday present and was blessed with my precious baby boy, so I think he out ranks the jewelry ;)

2. What’s your first thought when you see it’s snowing (or what would you say if you don’t live somewhere with snow? suggested by Poekitten from Many Waters
Living in Ohio for 25 years, I am quite used to the snow. But I usually only do serious complaining when it is coming down crazy, or if I wake up and we have a bunch of snow. Other than that, I am pretty used to it. Would love to get away from it though!

3. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?  suggested by Erika from Chambanachik
I didn't have to send my husband back to that awful place from R&R.

4. What was your favorite thing that happened in February? 
I had two amazing things happen. I got to see my husband again, after several long months and our handsome son was born February 5th :)

5. What are you looking forward to in March?
Hopefully warmer weather so me and baby can go out and adventure around. And another month down :)

I Would Like To Introduce...

My Precious Little Baby,

Matthew Ryan :)

He was born February 5, 2012

Two days later, we had to send Daddy back to Afghanistan.

Seriously, the hardest thing ever, for the both of us.

On a more positive note, we are almost half way done 

with this deployment!!

I apologize for my absence. I have not been the best blogger.

I will try my hardest to get back in the swing of things.

God knows, I have a bunch to say, just not enough time.

Its only me raising this little one while Daddy is gone.

Hope everyone has been well :)

Quick Update

Hubs is home for R&R, thank God!

Still NO baby though!

I have surpassed what my doctors expected me to go to..

good for baby I guess, but we are full-term now.

Bad for hubs because he has already been home 6 days

and still no baby. We are seriously doing everything possible

that we know of to get him out. Any suggestions, send them my

way. We need all the help we can at this point.

There are no words about how awful I will feel if we have no

baby before he goes back. And not to mention, I NEED him 

to be here for labor. I got a nice little dose the other night,

but contractions were not consistent enough and I am stuck

at 4 centimeters so they sent us home. And have had nothing since.

I am going crazy. I am done being pregnant.

Pregnancy Rant, Really...

So I am sure I am just being selfish and crazy hormonal from this pregnancy, but my husband is coming home from R&R soon. I feel like he is going to want to just go out and booze with his buddies the majority of the time. I get that he is beer deprived and things are not easy for him over there and just wants to have fun, but lets be honest, we are having a baby. He will either already be here before Josh gets home or really soon after. But I have had NO life for the past 9 months, lost lots of friends because I couldn't booze or go out with them anymore (guess they weren't really friends) and none of that will change anytime soon, if ever again. I am planning on breastfeeding at least for the first 6 months, if not the first year. So my alcohol/friend intake will be very limited still. I know I probably sound selfish, but if you were not going to see your baby for another 6-7 months wouldn't you want to spend as much time with him as possible, not to mention me. We've been married 6 months on the 8th and have never actually been a married couple. I'm sure I am over-reacting and he will be with us the majority of the time. And I'm sure this is just me freaking out because he won't be here for labor probably and well I get to spend the next 6-7 months being a single mother. Yes, I have plenty of people who are willing to help me, but they need to just back off and let me ask for help myself. The more they are pushing me the further I will push them away, they need to realize that. Ughh, I'm sorry for the rant, I am just really frustrated today!

01.01.2012

It is already 2012! Holy Cow! Where did 2011 go to?

I can't say 2011 was horrible because lots of awesome

things happened, like marrying my man, finding out

were having a baby boy, moving back out on my own.

But 2011 did bring a lot of challenging & difficult times,

along with a deployment that has taken my husband away 

since August of 2011.

I am looking forward to 2012. I am hoping for lots of

good things. I will have my precious little baby soon,

R&R will be soon, 8 months later - hubs will be home, 

FOR GOOD! We will hopefully be taking a vacation

with our little family & we will get to celebrate baby's

first Halloween and Christmas as a family!

So, yay for 2012!