A new adventure.

We are close to 5 hours away from boarding our plane to Hawaii. Never living outside of Washington is going to mess me up for a little bit, but I have faith in myself that I'll be able to deal with it. That might mean crying on hubby's shoulder a night or two, but over all, I think I'll be able to handle it.

I've said all my goodbyes...well, almost all of them...and I've got my bags packed (barely!)...and I'm ready to go.

We'll get there around 9pm and promptly go to the hotel so I can crash the fuck out. Granted, it'll only be 9pm in Hawaii, but my body will be in a different time zone...

So to my dearest Washingtonian friends and family, I love you all, and I will miss you terribly. But I'll have a nice tan the next time you see me!!



See you in Hawaii blog!

two weeks

TWO WEEKS!! It is two weeks until we get to Hawaii. There is such a serious mix of emotions going on with me right now. And for different reasons too. I'm excited and nervous and stressed out all at the same time. I have taken care of everything I can from Washington State. I've done as much prep work as I possibly can. All that's really left when we get there is getting a place to live, and waiting for all our crap to get there. Though some of it is going to beat us there by a couple days. I also lined up our rental car for the 9 days we'll be without a vehicle...which, to be honest, is a little irritating...I'm pretty pissed at myself that I didn't push to have our car shipped earlier than we did. But there's nothing I can do about it now, just deal. The only other thing I'm worried about right now is money. I'm worried that the move into the house will completely break us financially. I know it'll all work out in the end, because it always does, but it's just one of those things that I worry about. But we have been able to find at least a couple places that we're interesting in at least going to look at. Hopefully we can find something almost as soon as we get there. And not have it break the bank. haha.

We're planning our going away party for June 27th -- should be a good time. Trish (my sister in law) and my mom have been a big help and it'll be great to see everyone, including my cousin, who I haven't seen in years! Probably since right after I got married! She's one of the only female cousin I have who is close to my age, so of course I relate to her super easy -- plus, we both have kids. I just wish that my in-laws could be here to visit with us. :( It's so hard living so far away from everyone sometimes! I dislike the fact that the baby won't get to be born around any of her grandparents -- though almost all of them will be coming to visit shortly after she is born...but it makes me sad. Maybe I'm just mostly sad for myself since I won't have a support system there for me like I did with Reilly. I'm confident in Brad being there for me when I'm in labor, but I did quite enjoy my mom and other family members being around shortly after I had her. It was really comforting.

Speaking of baby -- I'm just two days into the start of my third trimester! Three more long months to go. Sometimes I question, what is better? Being pregnant, or having a new born? I dislike both things for certain reasons, yet, why do women decide that they want to go through them? I suppose all I really have to do is look at Reilly and remember. Even though all the crappy moments of her being a baby, and all the crap of hers that I've dealt with over the years...and having her around makes all the shit worth it. But that still doesn't mean that pregnancy, or having a new born, are entirely awesome. With baby girl #2, I had worse morning sickness, I got way big WAY fast, and now, I get cramps on my sides when I try to go to sleep, and as of today, she's up in my ribs. I sometimes get the feeling that I am seriously getting too damn old for this! But -- other than MY complaints, she's doing just fine. :) We still don't have a name picked out for her, and I don't see that changing any time in the near future...but we do have about 80% of the baby gear we need (I still need to get more clothes and at least a baby bath) -- I've been buying diapers whenever I get a chance, which is great. I'm so excited to cloth diaper her little tush. I just hope that when she's born, she's big enough to be put in cloth diapers right away instead of having to use disposables for awhile. She's movin around in there -- still breech as of 7 June...hopefully that changes soon. I'm not worried about it, as my doctor isn't going to be concerned until I'm like...I dunno, 35 weeks or something along those lines? So I'm erring on the side of caution with that...and the placenta thing...*sigh* I'm still worrying about a lot of stuff. It's a mix worry for myself and the baby, and a worry about how the birth is going to go. It's always in the back of my mind. I have this perfect image of how I want it to go and sometimes I let everything get the better of my thinking...but I'm trying really hard to think positively about the birth experience and I'm crossing my fingers it turns out for the best.

I posted an article from mothering just the other day about kids being there when their siblings are born and the effects of it, including a tighter bond between the two siblings. I've been contemplating having Reilly around...but I don't think the military community would be too keen on having a child in their labor/delivery rooms. I know Reilly could handle it though. How this birth goes is probably going to decide if we keep the kind of insurance with the Army that we have right now. I might need a little more freedom the next time around. BUT we will cross that road when we get there I suppose.

I'll try to update again before we move -- I know the week before we leave is going to be busy. The weekend before we are having our going away party. I'll try to make time. Until then...

<3

the end is near...

Well, we've kicked off our final month in Washington. I honestly never thought I'd see the day I'd ACTUALLY be leaving here. It's a little bitter sweet to tell you the truth. I've gotten so accustomed to having my parents, siblings and best friend only minutes away that I seriously don't know what I'm going to do with myself other wise. As long as I can remember, I have been telling my parents that I want to get outta Washington. I want to move somewhere where its warm and sunny (like California) or ridiculously exciting (like New York, or a foreign country), but after having Reilly, the likelihood of me actually leaving the state with her in tow was pretty much doubtful. But now that we will be basically forced to move every 3 years or so, I have the chance to live in different places! And the stability to be able to do it. Right now my main concern is Reilly getting adjusted to the new surroundings, and the fact that everyone she knows won't be right down the street. But there are some good things for her to look forward too, like the fact that she'll be starting school in Hawaii (preschool just a couple months after we get there) and she'll get to see the beaches and the turtles and all kinds of cool stuff that most kids won't see in their young lives. Of course it'll be an adjustment, and I imagine more than one night of her crying saying she misses her neighborhood in Washington and wants to go back to her house, but I think that after we get her room put back together, and get into the swing of things, all will be better. We're all excited about it....just Reilly and I will have to make the adjustments. And my parents/family/friends. Brad's done it before, so its really nothing new to him. Jerk. HA!


So I'm 26 weeks officially today. Time seems to be completely flying by right now. Of course, that always happens in the second trimester...time just flies by and you look around and say "wtf just happened?!" I have 98 days left (as of today) and a week until I'm in my third trimester. It just seems like I have so little time left before I have this little girl, and I'm not sure what at all I should do. I still have quite a few things I need to get, and right now, it looks like I'm just going to be buying as I go while we're still in Washington, and hope that we can get a house and settled and my parents will be alright with shipping things to me. Or just wait and see what I can get over there. I seriously have one box of baby things -- clothes, diapers, etc....and I don't feel like that's enough. I'm trying to rack my brain for how much shit I had when Reilly was born, but I don't at all remember. Luckily, the weekend before we had all our things packed up, we went out and were able to get a bouncy seat, swing, and pack n play to use as a bassinet. So that I'm pretty relieved about. It's just that the next month and a half or so are going to be pretty hectic and stress-filled for me, and when that happens, I just keep stressing and stressing and stressing and eventually I'll probably break down and cry. I'll stress about things that I seriously DON'T need to stress out about and the mental breakdown just continues from there. It's always the worst when I'm pregnant, but I'm like this anyway. It's ridiculously irritating.....back on topic. I had my follow up ultrasound on Monday to double check and see if my placenta had moved since it was low lying the last time -- it has by the way. They don't see any problems in the future, thank goodness! I was seriously worried that I would be forced to have a c-section that I didn't want, just because my placenta decided to be a bastard. I even got taken off of pelvic rest -- woohoo! Reilly got to see her little sister this time too! She was so super excited. She's getting more and more on board with this baby thing every day, which I am totally thankful for. In the mornings we get to wake up later, she'll rub my tummy and feel where the baby is at -- she hasn't felt her kick yet, but that takes time. She's still pretty hard to get to kick on command. But Reilly is loving being a big sister so far. She kisses my stomach and sings to the baby. She loves every minute of it.


So I guess that's all that's been going on. Or at least, that's all I feel like writing about right now. The last two weeks have been hectic, and while the next week will be relatively calm, I know there is more coming up. Thankfully I have my massage appointment a week from tomorrow, so I'm going to take some time and relax by myself and get massaged. Then I have a hair appointment on Saturday! I'm so excited! Also...hello at least 9 days of nice weather! This weekend its supposed to be almost 80 one day! I love when Washington summer finally decides to come around.

I'll try to update a little more. We'll see how that goes. I have been completely lacking in things to write about lately, and I don't feel like I have the time or the energy to keep up with this. But I will damnit. I DO however need to post pictures from our moving. Granted...our house was still messy, but it was a little hard to see our house all empty. :( I miss it already. I especially miss having cable in our bedroom and Reilly having her own room. Though she LOVES her cubby hole (which, I still have to take pictures of THAT too. See, I'm behind)

I'll update later.