This is My Forties

If you've forgotten why I enjoy Fridays right now it's because Josh comes home on the weekends from his TDY (military lingo for Temporary Duty Assignment). I miss my man... all the time. I feel lucky he comes home, though. I know people out there who aren't so lucky. He's so good to me :) What other man would listen to his pregnant wife complain about her tiramisu craving and actually MAKE SOME! Yes, from scratch... I was shocked we had the ingredients in the house. It was a great addition to the baked Italian chicken and pasta he also made. He loves me :) I love him... sigh. SORRY I am all emotional today (like every Friday). Look at him! Daaaang. Happy 29 weeks pregnant to me. I picked up my finger-pricking sugar test machine yesterday and I am a lot less stressed now. It doesn't hurt at all, but the anticipation the first few times is sure fun! I've checked my glucose several times and it really takes a LOT for me to build it up to a high level...

Our little weekend trip was very successful. The boys were well-behaved and silent the entire way to see Daddy (3 whole hours)... well except for the occasional excited squeal from Tristan when we passed cows or horses. Since we had such a small amount of time I really didn't take any pictures at all. Josh and I finally got to meet Kevin's family out here, which was a long time coming. One night we stayed up until 1am talking with his grandma, who was kind enough to offer her home to us while we were there :) It was a great visit! Everyone welcomed us with open arms. It was like visiting our own families. Hopefully we'll see you again before Spain, Kev! The only downside is that I came home with a nasty nasty cold. Everyone else already had it before we left, but with my allergies I seem to get hit harder than the boys. I'm glad they don't get this bad, honestly. I've got all the normal crud for me... sinus infection, upper respiratory infection, gene...

I was playing with my camera last night during the storm, trying to get a picture of lightning. My previous cameras couldn't take pics in such quick succession and without auto-focus, so it was never possible before. I would have stayed out longer, but the storm came and went pretty quickly and Bosley was whining at the front door the entire time which was really annoying. After that I decided to take a belly picture using our full-length mirror. I am 28 weeks or 7 months pregnant now. MAN this has gone fast! We still haven't picked out a name, unfortunately. I am hoping one will magically present itself to us or something. So anyway, before I knew it I had a million pictures of myself haha. I took a bunch of self portraits and then played around with them on Photoshop today. It was fun :) I look like Buddha when I sit cross-legged now... and I can't cross my legs like a "lady" anymore.

The same night Josh left Kevin came out for a visit. It was unfortunate that the timing ended up the way it did because he didn't get to see Josh, but they're going to meet up tomorrow for dinner. I think we may also make a road trip to FL to spend more time with Kev this weekend, one big happy family this time. No reason why he should have to do all the traveling after all... plus those 2 days went WAY too fast. Kevin helped out a lot while Josh was gone (and Josh was really happy to have someone trustworthy and reliable around for us). He and Noah were buddies and they really missed each other. He's such a close friend to both Josh and I so our visits always seem to fly. Noah was SO excited to see him again. Noah was basically Kevin's shadow until he left today. We had one decent sunny day so Kev and I took the boys out to the Swamp. Kevin recently got a Canon EOS 40D and wanted to break it in some more... the Swamp is the place! We had a lot of fun taking pi...

Josh was home for another long weekend. I must admit this TDY has been relatively painless. I feel really fortunate to be able to see my Joshua every weekend... and to have two 4-day weekends during this time is an added bonus! We went out to Strom Thurmond Lake (previously known as Clarks Hill Lake) at Mistletoe State Park again. The Lake is still extremely low. It looks more like a desert oasis out there than a lake. It's sad, really... makes for some cool pictures, but I don't know if this lake will ever recover. Maybe it's protesting the name change ;) Noah spent the entire trip collecting clam shells and throwing rocks into what was left of the lake. There were mounds of clam shells everywhere so Noah's proud announcements of his findings grew a bit tiring. I'm glad he had such a fun time, though... no matter how obnoxious he can get haha. The rest of the weekend we spent at home, enjoying each others company. The boys wrestled a whole lot with Daddy...

I had a great weekend with Josh and the boys. First, Josh surprised me with an early "CC" anniversary gift... a new 50mm lens! :) For those who don't remember our "CC" is when we first started dating (Feb. 19th). And if that wasn't enough... Jennifer (my old roomie from Texas) surprised us with the baby carrier we wanted! We love it, Tristan loves it... I could even wear it now while pregnant because it's soooo well-designed. Thanks again, Jen!! We were completely surprised!! :D All this goodness happened in one day too, can you believe it?! :) Josh also bought the boys a bubble machine and the temps were in the 70's so we had a blast playing outside nearly all day long. We took a lot of walks, went to the playground and the swamp, just hung out in the front yard. It was a bonafide family weekend. Even Bosley got to join in on all the fun ;) I can't believe it's February... it seems so odd to be able to walk around outside without...

Noah has been drawing a lot lately and is in love with his new pencil I gave him. He was reading books to Tristan and I before naptime (making up stories to go with the pictures) and I asked him if he wanted to write his own book. Of course! The entire story is out of Noah's own little brain. Well... except for the ending, which is from Shrek. All I ever asked was "then what happened?!" and "what do you want me to write". I took a little poetic license and left out a good 500 "And one day", but the bulk of Noah's narrative is in there :) I couldn't write fast enough, which explains the awful handwriting. Anyways. Enjoy it! I know I did!! It is now laminated and bound and will be cherished forever :)

First things first... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! I will give you a call soon :) Hope you're having a great day so far! Yesterday morning it was cold again and I thought it would be all day. I got the big roll of brown paper out for the boys to color. It was fun :) I love that stuff! Noah's new favorite thing to draw is rocketships with all of us inside. Tristan scribbled a few lines, but was more interested in dumping the crayons out and diving into them, sitting on them, and tasting them. I tried to get a picture of me and both the boys, but Noah told me he was too busy lol. I finally took a video with the new camera and uploaded it to flickr! Noah has been practicing writing his full name this week... I took out our last name for privacy reasons, but it looks pretty good! I'm trying to teach him our address and phone number as well, but I am wondering if it's possible to convince him to NOT tell every single person this information hahaha. We've also been ...

Anyone who happens to read this please pray for my Aunt Vita and our family. She was diagnosed with peritoneum cancer not too long ago, which is very aggressive. After surgery and some unpleasant chemotherapy the cancer came back. She's undergoing even more chemo... stronger and a higher dose now. She has 3 grown children and one new granddaughter. My Mom is heading out there right now to help out. My aunts are all very very close and everyone is having a difficult time dealing with this news. They lost their mother to cancer, which makes everything especially hard to handle. I'm still holding out for a miracle otherwise I would have posted this when it first happened. Either that or I'm in denial. I don't know what I would categorize it as. Please pray, send some positive energy our way, light a candle, meditate, or do whatever your version of prayer may be. We need you! This is my cousin Sandy's blog (Aunt Vita's daughter) she updates regularly I...

We're due for sunny, but freezing days the rest of the week. Yesterday we tried to get some outside time before the freeze blew in... and I'm pretty sure we experienced the cold front's rapid approach haha. We drove out to Leitner Lake (it's on base here) with Bosley, who was surprisingly good in the car considering his lack of exercise lately. Luckily the sun was out so it wasn't too unbearable, but we weren't able to stay there very long. OK... I wasn't able to stay out very long! I'm sure the boys and Bosley would have played until their fingers and toes fell off, but I was ready to go get warmed up in the comfort of the van. Noah made "X"s all over the place and kept telling me "X marks the spot for buried treasure, Ma'y" (that's his lazy boy version of Mommy). I'm glad we got a walk in! This morning it's freezing... the dog's water is a solid brick of ice and it's once again obvious that the buil...