For Our Records:

The pentagon got Jeremy's application on December 22nd! So we shall see how long it takes for us to find out what is going on in 2009.
Also....


Jeremy will be out of Iraq in less than 2 months and he will be in Arkansas in less than 3 months!

26 Weeks/Texas

I am exactly 26 weeks pregnant here. It is getting really hard to take a good picture these days...


Our trip to Dallas was a fun one! On Friday night the weather was in the 70's and then Saturday night it was in the 20's when we came out of the show. It was crazy. Grapevine is the Christmas capital of Texas, so we got to see some very pretty lights and Christmas decorations. We also hit up Macy's on Saturday. I miss that store so much! Why don't we have on in Little Rock?? Unfortunately, my camera is pretty bad so a lot of my pictures didn't turn out that great. There is also the black area that keeps showing up on random pics. Anyway, across from the opry where Brian sang, was a big setup of Christmas themed stuff. Grandpa's favorite part was the old timey house that was setup to look just like way back in the Little House on the Prairie days. It was pretty cool!


Me and grandma in front of an elf house, waiting to go into the show.

Brian made friends with an elf while we were there

Looks like real snow! I love the blue lights this year.

The first night he sang, there was a group of the "Red Hat Club" ladies that loved him! This was after the show.

Lights were dim here, but the stage and everything looked so pretty!

We sat pretty far back on both nights

I have to put a picture of Chloe and one of her Christmas balls on here. I haven't seen this one since we got back from Texas. I wonder where she hid it?

Well, Jeremy is still doing fine out there in Iraq. They should be out in less than 2 months!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Some Things I May Need to Remember

I am in the mood to ramble so here we go. Since July, I guess you could say I am an exaggerated version of my normal self (clumsy and lots of duh moments pre-pregnancy). I think I need to take note of my personal "pregnancy symptoms" that I may forget over time, or Jeremy can remind me of when he is around for (he better be please, army) the next pregnancy. I predict another boy already by the way.

So far:
Morning sickness? Never had it and probably will not be that lucky again. Food aversions? Broccoli from week 10ish to week 20ish. Cravings? Sour, salty, and citrus...think pickles, olives, lemons, mustard, oranges. Cheese in the first trimester. Fatigue? Oh yeah. Heartburn? The farther along in the pregnancy the more common it becomes, but still hardly never. Headaches? Very much so, mostly in the first trimester.

My #1 Pregnancy Symptom: Accident Prone

I am dangerous! Cell phones and cameras beware I will hurt you. I have already broken Jeremy's cell phone that he sent me from Iraq. I can't upgrade until January and I needed a new phone, my other one that I loved finally gave out on me. It was so pretty and gold and I miss it :( I think I dropped Jeremy's probably ten times Saturday and the side buttons are no more. The rule is, any time I get out of my car I drop my phone. Add 5 or 6 to the number of times a day I get out of my car and then you have the total number of times a day I drop my phone. If I go to the mall that day, go ahead and add an extra 3 or 4 to the total number. The phone barely works when it wants to now.

*My digital camera that I just bought this year...I couldn't tell you when I bought it because my brain is broken...already has developed some sort of macular degeneration and wants to create black holes in my pictures. Again, I dropped the thing daily so it is no wonder. I would have put it in its case and carried it but who knows where the case is. I mean I just found the actual camera today after it had been missing for a week.

*The Tahoe is learning how to take turns by cutting off the corners. For some reason, I can't make a turn without dropping my back tire down into the ditch or whatever and feeling it bump one good time. I am trying hard on getting better at this. I also mostly park on curbs if given the opportunity. I always try to re-park and then just give up. Its a 4-wheel drive so whatever, it can handle it :) as Jeremy is cringes.

*My necklace that never comes off has been to Zales 3 times to be repaired. Jeremy knows me well enough to ALWAYS get the service plan :)

*I am on computer charger number 3 because I somehow tear up the others, and if you see my F7 key please send it my way oh and my spare SD card that has around 800 pictures on it....and my living room remote control :)

*I've dropped 2 glasses this week (we are only on plastic now). I came back in the house on Friday because I was looking for my camera that wasn't in the car, and found my pink sweatshirt hoodie resting on top of my straightener and turning a nice toasted shade of brown. That could have been REALLY bad! In fact, if I hadn't dropped my straightener while we were in Texarkana last week, we probably would have had a fire. You see, only one side of my straightener works right now because the other side is broken, thanks Texarkana trip!

*Speaking of house fires, did I mention that I sat Jeremy's medical records down on a lit candle a couple of weeks ago and had a bedside fire show for a minute there?

*Grilled cheese sandwiches can also be dangerous. Unlike other blogs, I have no bragging rights to any recipes and cool little things I discover while in the kitchen. All I can tell you is take the time to find the spatula. Save your hands from the burns that take forever to go away. You probably already knew this and I probably did too, but not that day!

*Also, designate a place for your cheese grater. When you reach into the kitchen drawer that is stuck and won't open, and claustrophobically pull your arm out because you can't figure out what the hold up is....a cheese grater is the last thing that you want to drag your delicate thin forearm skin over. Ouch! I still can see the marks and I believe this was a pre-thanksgiving injury.

*One more kitchen utensil I am newly afraid of starting today: The Fork. Bad, bad fork. I am blaming the fork because today is permanent and I am so mad at myself and need to blame the fork. I chipped my front tooth on one bite of a boneless chicken wing that I thought deserved a fork. For some reason, I thought I had to bite off half the fork with this piece of boneless chicken. :( So make that plastic cups and forks. I take really good care of my teeth because I already have so many problems with them (thanks genetics, sorry Jackson!) and my front top and bottom teeth I really wanted to keep around as long as possible before having to crown or whatever. Well, I will probably find out the damage tomorrow because Jana is trying to get me in at her office. I'm sad about this mishap the most. I wonder if being pregnant has anything to do with your teeth being more brittle? Mom thinks so.

Well needless to say I am really clumsy and I haven't even mentioned how many times I have almost lost my pinky toe on the door frames, hit my head on the wall while reaching into the washing machine, bruised my arms and elbows on the doorknobs, and knocked myself out on open cabinet door corners. IT IS THAT BAD.

Second to being accident prone would have to be that my brain seriously won't work sometimes. I probably broke it too. We are always talking about the wheels turning too fast in our heads and how we wish we could slow them down sometimes. Well when one of my wheels decides to turn, the rest won't. I seriously feel like my thought process gets stuck. I can't remember easy things like dates and army post names (which I used to know well and now I can never tell anyone where I think we are going because I simply can't remember....yes the location keeps changing but that is no surprise and I couldn't tell you the name of the post in Kentucky that we may be headed to and it isn't Fort Knox it is the other one). I believe they call this symptom "baby brain". It is common along with being accident prone or I would really be worried.

My other symptom is kind of hard to explain. I am moody. I know big surprise. This is a different kind of moody though. When something makes me mad/sad/upset/not happy, I get a heat wave filled with emotion like I have never felt before. Meaning, I get REALLY HOT and my feelings are intensified to the point where I need to be outside and left alone. Red splotches on my neck and chest, it is really odd. Hasn't happened much luckily but wow I think I could really cause some damage. So yeah JC Penney lady you might wanna check that price one more time and really make sure this is where you wanna go with me, you know good and well those boots were on sale.

Well I think that is about it. I feel like I have documented the past 25 weeks to the best of my ability, plus I'm finally getting sleepy and I don't think Jeremy is going to call tonight so I should try to sleep. Looks like I will be heading to Little Rock tomorrow to see my friends at Harris and Reynolds Family Dentistry.

My prairie dog

I was standing at the stove fixing Jeremy some Christmas candy and I looked over and Chloe Mae was begging! She was standing up just like a prairie dog it was so cute! I never taught her how or anything. I thought it was funny. She does it all the time now for her toys or treats


There is a gray spot by her back paws, my camera is already messing up! Probably because I drop it 20 times a day. Now I've just totally lost the camera so I don't have any pictures from our busy weekend! I'm sure it will turn up.

How Thoughtful....Send a card to the Troops!

Don't forget to pause the music player down at the bottom if you want to hear the video :)




You can mail the cards to:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

One Year Ago Today.....

We kicked off the 15 month challenge called our first and hopefully last deployment. I flew out of Hawaii on the night of December 8th, 2007. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but at the same time we were so ready to get this deployment over with. Jeremy and Doug drove me to the airport that night and on our way, we stopped by one of our favorite restaurants...Dixie Grill. We had one more "Screaming Mai Tai" before I got on the plane. Those drinks were huge and so good! Then Doug dropped me and Jeremy off at the door, Jeremy got to go past security and wait with me at the gate until they did the last call for all passengers. So sad I was almost sick over it. We are so glad that is over with! Jeremy left Hawaii headed for Iraq on December 10th, and he says that it was probably easier for me to leave when I did. It would have been too hard for him to leave.

Our last picture in Hawaii at Dixie Grill

During that week, we tried to enjoy the Christmas decorations and enjoy Hawaii together.
These pics were taken downtown.

While we were finalizing things out in Hawaii, things were extra complicated for us because we were dealing with selling both of our vehicles and a tropical storm came through and tore things up along with knocking out our power. We already had our candles and everything packed into our storage building. Anyway, I remember all of this very well because in some ways it feels like yesterday.

Trees in our yard

Bye Mazda!

Bye Ranger!

We sold those vehicles on one of the very last days that we were there. Luckily!

It was sad packing up and leaving our very first place together.

Jeremy had tons of gear he had to pack and take to Iraq with him.

We had to get the place inspected before we left, so everything had to be clean and the way it was when he moved in.



I do miss it! It is hard to believe how much has changed in the past year.